How to Kill a Country

Australia' recent Free Trade Agreement with USA

By Linda Weiss and co-authored by Elizabeth Thurbon and John Mathews

"Thanks to the manipulation of debate surrounding the trade agreement with the US, which came into effect on January 1st, few Australians realise the enormity of the changes that are being demanded of us under the deal – and just how destructive they will be. We are not referring to the poor market access that Australian business and exports received (damaging enough in itself). We are talking about the dismantling and replacement of Australian institutions with something foreign, which will work against our economic prosperity and to the advantage of the foreign power.

"These institutions include:

• Our rigorous Quarantine procedures that safeguard agricultural producers from devastating exotic pests and diseases and give Australians a competitive advantage in world markets;
• Our PBS that protects the health system against soaring prescription costs and makes medicines affordable for all Australians
• Our IP laws that encourage local innovators in IT and biotech, for example, without extravagant protection of monopolies;
• Our system of government purchasing programs that support an Australian IT industry, in particular, and return tax dollars to Australian residents.

"The most important changes target these very arrangements that secure our competitive advantage in world markets, preserve our economic security, and safeguard social wellbeing.

"The evidence – for anyone willing to consider it – is compelling. As we show in our new book, How to Kill a Country, all of these institutional arrangements, and more, are placed under peril by the FTA.

"Take the case of agriculture. Once we allow our core ‘clean and green’ label for our agricultural exports to be compromised by lowering our Quarantine standards to accommodate imports from disease-prone areas — as occurred throughout 2004 in dress rehearsal for the FTA’s entry into force—then this distinctive advantage is lost forever; it cannot be retrieved. This is a loss of national competitiveness ..."
Source: Perspective

Linda Weiss is Professor of Government and International Relations at the
University of Sydney’s School of Economics & Political Science; Elizabeth
Thurbon is a Lecturer at UNSW’s School of Politics and International Relations; John Mathews is Professor of Strategic Management at Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

The Australian Interest
[Website was founded by Linda Weiss and Elizabeth Thurbon]