[clug] FTA article

[amy]

To help stop the FTA or to find more information visit

www.nofta.org  and/or
www.aftinet.org.au

----- Original Message -----
From: "david howe" <david at qednet.biz>
To: "Kim Holburn" <kim.holburn at nicta.com.au>
Cc: "List CLUG" <linux at lists.samba.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: [clug] FTA article


> The so called FTA is a complete insult to anyones intelligence. Blind
> freddy could see that its the an act of colonialism. The US position
> speaks volumes for their respect for Australia, the Australian position
> equally revealing for the implicit servitude.
>
> No single act of the Howard government could be so destructive to our
> national interests.
>
> david
>
> On Wed, 2004-07-21 at 13:33, Kim Holburn wrote:
> > http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/19/1090089093287.html
> >
> > > Why Latham should reject the FTA
> > > This so-called free trade agreement is a humiliating sell-out, says
> > > Tim Colebatch.
> >
> > Interesting take and one of the most anti-FTA articles I have seen.
> > Points out the real meat of the FTA:
> >
> > >  This is really half a free trade agreement. It will mean free trade
> > > for American exports to Australia. The day the agreement begins, 99
> > > per cent of US exports will enter Australia duty-free, with complete
> > > free trade within 10 years. But it will not mean free trade for
> > > Australian exports to the US: not ever. The US will retain a ban on
> > > exports of Australia's world-leading fast ferries. It will limit
> > > Australia's sugar exports to token levels. It will exclude most
> > > Australian textile exports by tailor-made rules of origin.
> > >
> > >  The US will still severely limit Australian dairy exports. And it
> > > will maintain indefinitely quotas on Australian exports of beef and 30
> > > or so other areas of farm produce - openly for 18 years, and then
> > > reappear like Cheshire cats whenever US prices fall significantly,
> > > which analysts say happens every couple of years.
> > >
> > >  How could any Australian government agree to such a lopsided deal? We
> > > are proud to be a nation that walks tall, treats others as equals, and
> > > demands the same of them. Could you imagine Sir John McEwen, Bob Hawke
> > > or Paul Keating accepting this cringing, second-rate outcome? It is a
> > > humiliating sell-out.
> >
> > Ouch.
> >
> > And about IP:
> >
> > >  The third red line Howard crossed to get this deal in time for the
> > > election was in agreeing to adopt US laws to protect copyright and
> > > other forms of intellectual property. This could mean absurdities such
> > > as accepting the patent a US firm has claimed on double-clicking your
> > > computer mouse, and endless litigation as US giants try to stamp out
> > > competition from Australia's open source software creators.
> > >
> > >  A knowledge economy needs to lean towards encouraging flexibility and
> > > innovation, not rewarding rent-seekers. We should be reducing the
> > > length of copyright and patent terms, not increasing them. And rather
> > > than signing away our right to use offset programs and government
> > > purchasing to develop new industries, we should have kept them out of
> > > this deal. Instead, we have ended up with a free trade agreement that
> > > does not deliver free trade, and instead invades a range of non-trade
> > > areas where our American friends frankly have no business to be.
> >
> >
> > Kim
> > --
> > Kim Holburn
> > IT Manager, Canberra Research Laboratory
> > National Information and Communication Technology Australia
> > Ph: +61 2 61258620 M: +61 417820641
> > Email: kim.holburn at anu.edu.au  - PGP Public Key on request
> > Cacert Root Cert: http://www.cacert.org/index.php?id=16 ->
> > http://www.cacert.org/cacert.crt
> > Aust. Spam Act: To stop receiving mail from me: reply and let me know.
> >
> > Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
> >                            -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------
> David Howe
> www.qednet.biz
> davidATqednet.biz
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
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