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January 23, 2004
Free trade: Deadlocked?
The Australian Financial Review (subscription required) reports that the free trade trade negotiations with the US have reached a dead lock, prrimarily due to US intransigence.
The US has only offered minor improvements in market access for Australian beef and dairy products. And the Bush administration has decided against offering Australia any extra market access at all for sugar.
Australia is a small economy with hardly any trade barriers that hurt the US. And we are asking the US to dismantle some of its most politically sensitive barriers on a range of farm goods.
Why would they? The US is a deeply protectionist nation state in relation to agriculture. It uses tarriffs, quotas and subsidies to support its farmers.
It does not look as if a deal will be cut easily.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at January 23, 2004 02:31 PM
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