In order to win the Australian government's support for the war in Iraq, Pres. Bush promised passage of the Australia U.S. Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA).
This latest corporate-driven deal is now before the U.S Congress and the Australian Parliament despite massive opposition from family farmers, healthcare groups, labor unions, environmental organizations, democratic media and fair trade advocates in both countries.
What is Wrong with AUSFTA? U.S. Farmers and Consumers Will Face A Flood Of Illegal Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC): Milk protein concentrate (MPC) is an unregulated industrial grade dairy byproduct that is not produced in the U.S. and imported by food giants as a cheap substitute for domestic milk in the manufacture of processed cheese products like Kraft Singles, Mac n? Cheez, and Velveeta. This use of MPC in human food violates federal food safety and labeling rules, yet the FDA has not taken any serious enforcement action. Australia is a major exporter of MPC, and passage of AUSFTA will mean a veritable flood of MPC into the U.S., bankrupting struggling family farmers and jeopardizing consumer safety.
Australians Will Be Forced to Buy Expensive Medicines from U.S. Drug Makers: Australians currently have access to affordable drugs thanks to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme PBS) which purchases generics at wholesale prices. In contrast, under rules that guarantee corporate patent monopolies, U.S. citizens pay 3-10 times more for the same drugs. AUSFTA would wipe out this alternative and force Australians to adopt a drug policy that favors U.S. corporate profit instead of public healthcare.
U.S. Ranchers and Consumers Will Have to Deal With More Imported Australian Meat: Already suffering from lower prices due to Mad Cow and runaway consolidation of the meat industry, U.S. ranchers will find themselves competing with tariff-free imports of Australian lamb, sheep, and beef under AUSFTA. Given the corporate control of the food system, neither Australian farmers nor U.S. consumers will really benefit as global meat giants like Swift and Cargill siphon off the bulk of the profit margin from global trade. Since Congress has yet to pass mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), U.S. consumers do not even have the right to know where the meat on their plate comes from.
Rigged global trade deals such as AUSFTA that place corporate profit above all else - farmer livelihood, public health, food safety, and democratic sovereignty - have no place in the 21st century. Citizens in both the U.S. and Australia deserve FAIR TRADE, not free trade.
