By Dave Oliver

This week the latest free trade agreement – the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – was put back on the agenda by the Prime Minister, following the meeting of APEC leaders in Hawaii.

As an industry dependent on trade, international agreements that increase export opportunities are vital, but hard questions must be asked to determine whether this deal will do just that, or whether, like the US, Thai and Singapore Free Trade Agreements signed earlier this decade, Australia will end up with the short straw.

That is why the AMWU is calling for a thorough economic and social impact study to be conducted before any deal is signed. This study should be open to public scrutiny.

The AMWU wants any trade deal to include core workers’ rights, collective bargaining, health and safety standards, and environmental standards. We are not competing on a level playing field if we compete with countries that allow companies to treat their workers like machines or their natural environment like a rubbish tip.

We are in favour of globalisation. We just want it to raise global standards, not reduce them.

Multilateral agreements are preferable to bilateral and regional agreements because multilateral agreements provide for greater transparency, economic benefits to both developing and developed countries, application of the same rules of origin, and greater bargaining power for developing nations. 

The so-called benefits of bilateral and regional agreements have been questioned in a recent report of the Australian Productivity Commission.
We are in favour of trade and competition. We just want it to be fair.

There are numerous examples of how Australia has been dudded in recent FTAs. The Thai agreement saw both countries drop tariffs in the auto sector, but when Ford Australia went to export our very successful Territory vehicle, they discovered that the Thais had replaced their tariffs with a luxury tax on SUVs.

There should be no provision in the TPPA that limits the sovereignty of the state to legislate in the public interest or pursue social objectives.

The US is unlikely to repeal the Jones Act on defence procurement or the Buy America and Buy American Acts. And we shouldn’t throw away our right to preference local industries in government procurement or use industry policy to develop sectors which deliver jobs and prosperity for Australia.

The TPPA should not contain any commitments that would undermine our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) which regulated the wholesale prices and provides more affordable access to medicines.

The AMWU will be campaigning on these issues and watching the development of this debate closely.