Fed: Govt must release modelling of FTA benefits: Labor

AAP General News (Australia)
02-11-2004
Fed: Govt must release modelling of FTA benefits: Labor

CANBERRA, Feb 11 AAP - The federal government must release its modelling of the impact
of a free trade deal with the United States to prove its claims it was good for Australia,
Labor said today.

Opposition finance spokesman Bob McMullan said the government must have done modelling
on the impact of the deal before it was signed.

Before final negotiations, a government-commissioned report estimated the deal would
boost Australia's economy by $4 billion a year.

Since then, the surge in the Australian dollar has reduced that impact to around $2.5 billion.

Another report, which was ultimately criticised by the government, warned the deal
may have a negative impact on the economy.

Mr McMullan said the exclusion of sugar from the trade deal and Australia's failure
to get other key demands meant it was likely the benefits of the agreement were much less
than claimed by the government.

"As the evidence mounts up day by day you have to say the government's done a very
bad deal," he told ABC radio.

"They've done a deal for their domestic political purposes, and I think the economics
of it look worse and worse every day.

"Surely, they didn't sign the deal and now they're trying to work out whether it was
a good deal or not?

"If they've tested it, what's the result, tell the Australian people, release it to
the parliament."

Mr McMullan said the reported $4 billion gain was predicated on a huge access improvement
in sugar.

He said it appeared the US had got all it wanted from the deal, but Australia had missed out.

"The US got what they wanted, we didn't get what we wanted," he said.

"The government for its domestic political purposes signed us up to a dud deal."

The author of the critical report of the deal, ACIL Consulting's Greg Cutbush, said
it was likely the agreement was worse than he first envisaged.

He said the absence of sugar, US requirements on intellectual property, and the failure
to gain access for Australian shipbuilders to the American market, all undermined the
deal.

"It's a lot worse than we modelled, I think, because it doesn't have agriculture,"

he told ABC radio.

"I'm worried that the cost benefit calculations haven't really been done."

AAP sw/sb/cmc/brn

KEYWORD: TRADE US ALP

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