What Australian newspapers say Tuesday, Feb 10, 2004

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2004
What Australian newspapers say Tuesday, Feb 10, 2004

SYDNEY, Feb 10 AAP - In the world of practical and economics, the Australia-US free
trade agreement (FTA) is much, much better than the alternative, The Australian says in
its editorial today.

The Howard government was right to settle for what it could get rather than reject
a deal because the US did not open all its agricultural markets to us effective tomorrow.

Moreover, the deal is worth signing for strategic and cultural reasons. The US alliance
is the linchpin of our national security and defence arrangements because of our shared
values and a common history.

As the FTA deepens the human interaction between Australians and Americans, it will
strengthen profound cultural ties tempered in the furnace of war.

Partly because these ties have such broad and deep public acceptance in Australia that
Labor should ponder very deeply before it does anything to hinder the agreement.

The Sydney Morning Herald says while Australian sugar will lose greater access under
the FTA, this should not stop careful scrutiny of the detail before the proposed agreement
is accepted.

And FTA will have positives and negatives. The decision to adopt or reject this one
will require consideration of where the balance of advantage for Australia lies, once
its full detail is open for scrutiny.

That does not mean rejection because of objections raised by special interest groups.

Nor does it mean accepting an agreement that does not serve Australia's interests.

The Australian Financial Review says it is one thing to legislate access and another
for our businesses to exploit it. Australian businesses will need to back themselves and
their workers and ignore those who would sell them short.

The government is partly to blame for the rise in such pessimism. Its language concentrates
on gains in market access and "protection" of anti-competitive measures such as agricultural
marketing monopolies, while underselling the greater benefits from lowering our trade
barriers.

It should instead unashamedly promote the kind of optimism and confidence that has
underpinned Australia's economic reforms and the consequent reversal of our sliding fortunes
over recent decades. The FTA should help reinvigorate that process.

Melbourne's Herald Sun says the FTA is historic and should be embraced.

It will give Australia greater access to the world's largest market.

An early estimate is that there will be a $3 billion bonus for Australian trade.

Melbourne's The Age says the announcement of the deal was finely timed, coming the
eve of today's resumption of federal parliament but after the Beattie government had won
another Queensland election.

If it had come before the Queensland election, sugar growers may have vented their
rage at the coalition.

Two of the three seats the ALP lost to the conservative parties were in the sugar belt,
where cane growers vented their anger at the Beattie government's plans for a partial
deregulation of the industry.

Despite the FTA being a boost for Prime Minister John Howard, his claim about its overall
benefits for Australians will need to be sustained.

Brisbane's The Courier-Mail says the deal will bring significant benefits for manufacturers
and exporters of primary products, but is a bitter disappointment for the sugar industry
which was excluded.

To prevent a political backlash, Mr Howard needs to speak with the people in the industry
before the end of the week, as soon as he can disengage himself from parliament.

They deserve to be told by him why he decided they could be written out of the FTA
agenda, what he plans to do for their industry instead and when he will deliver on those
plans.

Adelaide's The Advertiser says the agreement is an important moment in Australia's
history. Australia is now the country with the strongest ties to the US.

Critics will argue Australia is a junior partner being exploited by the world's only
superpower. But, as Prime Minister John Howard says, this deal is as much about the future
as about past and present patterns of trade.

Many industries, including car component makers, which will benefit under the FTA,
are vitally important to South Australia.

AAP rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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