A Second Bite for US Free Traders

Vanguard February 2011 p. 7
Bill F.

Not satisfied with the inroads made by the US Australia Free Trade Agreement, US imperialism is taking another bite under the pompous title of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

This is a proposal for a ‘free trade’ deal between the USA and Australia, NZ, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The US and Australia each have some trading agreements with some of these countries, but these would be superseded by this multilateral proposal.

It has little to do with free trade, especially countries getting access to American markets. Rather, it is all about the US monopoly corporations gaining easier access to other countries’ markets by creating special laws for foreign investors. The TPPA regards many laws and social and health policies as restrictive trade barriers and seeks to dismantle them, or for foreign investors from member countries to be exempt.

Impact on Australia
As far as Australia is concerned, this puts at risk existing laws that regulate foreign investment and the banking and finance industries, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which makes medicines affordable for millions of Australians, food labelling laws, current restrictions on the sale and packaging of cigarettes, regulated local content on television, GM food labelling, and government procurement policies, to name a few. The TPPA is also opposed to current environmental protection laws and international agreements that Australia has signed. Not surprisingly, labour and trade union rights are also a target.

Finally, the TPPA wants foreign investors and corporations to have special rights to sue the government for any restrictions or limits placed on their ‘free trade’ activities. These so-called ‘investor state’ provisions were inserted in the North American Free Trade Agreement and have been used successfully against the governments of Uruguay and Canada. Already, cigarette company Phillip Morris has signalled it intends to oppose Australia’s plain packaging laws and will use the TPPA for this purpose. Craig Emerson, the federal Minister for Trade, would not commit to insisting ‘investor state’ provisions be excluded from the TPPA.

A report by the Australian Productivity Commission into the current US Australia Free Trade Agreement could find little evidence that the deal has produced any benefit. On the contrary, it suggested that trade may have been harmed by introducing new rules that restricted the sale of goods made with products imported from countries not in the agreement. Copyright provisions in the agreement also imposed extra costs on Australians purchasing books and music.

As was the case with the US Australia Free Trade Agreement, a broad coalition is coming together to resist this latest attack on Australian sovereignty. It pits the interests of the people directly against the interests of US imperialism and the discredited ‘globalisation’ agenda. Imperialism will be further exposed as it tries to trample over the rights and wishes of the Australian people. It will come away with a bloody nose.