Ruminations

John Quiggin got to put the counter-view to Alan Oxley, a director of the Australia/US Free Trade Agreement business group (AUSTA) (the 'F' doesn't seem to make the acronym for some reason!) One point Quiggin made that should not be overlooked is that fact that this ain't no FTA -- it's a little more besides. 'Australia-US Social, Economic and Political Integration' might be a more appropriate handle. Oxley says that: "The economics of trade liberalisation tell you that the smaller economy when connected with the bigger economy will do better and I think that's what we should expect out of a free trade agreement between Australia and the US." Do better in the broad macroeconomic sense maybe, but not without some pretty significant sacrifices. Take the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS), for example, which the US claims is a 'barrier to trade'. Then there is the small matter of Australian media ownership laws and regulations about Australian content. This won't be an issue, I suppose, so long as US cultural and linguistic imperialism doesn't register in the calculation of GDP figures.