Minister, there is ambiguity about the security links of a US-Australia FTA Craig Emerson - Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Trade

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Media Statement - 26 March 2003

Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, today sought to deny earlier Government statements that the proposed free trade agreement with the United States is in consideration of our security alliance with the US.

In his speech at the National Press Club today, the Minister claimed that Australia's security alliance with the US and the proposed FTA between the two countries are completely separate, saying:

It is absolutely clear there is no ambiguity about our position that these two policy settings, in terms of the strategic security policy and our economic and trade policy, are clearly separate and heading in a particular direction and are absolutely based on the merits.

This is at odds with previous comments made by himself, and the Foreign Minister, that the FTA is important for Australia's strategic interests and that the FTA is directly linked with our security alliance with the United States (see attached quotes).

And the Government is using this argument to push its case for an FTA in Washington. The Australian Ambassador to the United States, Michael Thawley, told the US National Cattleman's Beef Association that he included

Australia's support for the US military in Iraq as reasons that he felt that FTA negotiations would proceed with or without the Association's opposition (National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Press Release, 13/9/02).

In trying to deny the undeniable, the Trade Minister has only compounded the offence: the free trade agreement is pay off for Australia following the US into a war with Iraq.

Attached: Government statements linking the negotiation of a trade deal with the US to the alliance (pdf format, Size - 72KB)