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Free Trade Agreement on agriculture 'a misnomer'
12 Feb 2004
Queensland rural lobby group AgForce says Australia's Free Trade Agreement with the US in relation to agriculture is "a misnomer". AgForce president Larry Acton said Australian farmers would be very disappointed with the result, even though the FTA appears to be good for the economy overall.
Mr Acton said the phase-in period of 18 years for Australian beef access is "insulting to say the least", and longer than for countries like Chile which also have FTAs with the US. The word "free" should be removed from the acronym, Mr Acton said. The outcome for Australian beef producers falls well short of the lowest expectations. Clearly the US negotiators were overly mindful of their farm lobby or misunderstood the term "free", Mr Acton stated, and we hope the Australian Government will negotiate a lot harder to gain advantages for agriculture in the upcoming Word Trade Organisation talks.
Queensland Country Life, 12/2/04.
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