Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I just register my concern that this is the consideration of the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio and the trade minister is not here. So, if we are talking about bad manners, let us get that on the record. I have two aspects of trade that I want to go to: one deals with the free trade agreement negotiations with China and with the US, the other to exports and the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. I will ask the questions about the free trade agreements first and get to the second group of questions if we can in the time available.

I refer the minister to evidence given in Senate estimates recently by the government’s lead negotiator for the Australia-China free trade agreement, Mr Ric Wells, first assistant secretary of your department, Minister. He conceded that negotiations with China are going nowhere because ‘the Chinese government does not want the FTA’. He also revealed that China has no interest in having a comprehensive free trade agreement and would prefer to exclude chapters on education, telecommunications and financial services. Mr Wells went on to say:

The Chinese also have reservations on including a chapter on competition policy. They have reservations on including the sort of chapter that we want on investment. They have reservations on including a chapter on electronic commerce. They have reservations on including a chapter on government procurement. It is quite a long list …

Minister, do you share the view that China does not want an FTA? If so, why has the budget allocated a further $12.7 million to this set of negotiations? Is the government going to insist on the chapters the Chinese want excluded being included? Does the government now accept that conceding market economy status to China without getting anything in return was a flawed strategy? In the interests of transparency, has the government undertaken and made public any hard, comprehensive study which shows what Australia will actually gain from an outcome in the free trade agreement? My final point on free trade agreements goes to the US free trade agreement. Can the minister confirm when the mid-term review on the free trade agreement with the US, which should be taking place around now, is to take place? What items will the Australian government be pursuing in that review?

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