STOP MAI

MEDIA RELEASE -for immediate release, 22 April, 2004 Authorised by the STOP-MAI Campaign Coalition (WA) Website http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/fair.html Affiliated with the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTInet) and with the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO)

US Free Trade Agreement exposes Australians
to reduction of parliamentary and court authority

The failure of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) to meet our national interests was immediately recognised by Australia's negotiators. Their recommendation to withdraw from it was, however, overridden by Prime Minister Howard for obviously self-interested political reasons.

Mr Howard appears confident that his pet project will be endorsed by the Federal Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which will conduct a public hearing at State Parliament in Perth tomorrow (Fri 23 April).

Western Australia's StopMAI Coalition will be submitting that the AUSFTA

• Weakens the power of Parliament to make laws
• Exposes taxpayers to huge compensation payments to US corporations, as Mexico and Canada have already experienced under NAFTA
• Creates a business legal avenue which can override High Court decisions (1)
• Removes FIRB scrutiny from US investments and takeovers worth less than $800 million (previously $50m) -- i.e., at least 90% of all investments
• Will weaken quarantine regulations, professional qualifications and licensing whenever these are seen by US competitors as 'trade restrictive'.

The AUSFTA is also the subject of a current Senate Select Committee inquiry which is composed of a majority of non-Government senators. StopMAI is preparing a submission.

 

(1) See New York Times article at < http://www.tradeobservatory.org/headlines.cfm?RefID=19341 >

 

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PHONE CONTACTS: Brian Jenkins +61 8 9528 1864; Dion Giles 0411 745 538