Hockey dismisses colleague’s FTA concerns
Herald Sun, Australia
Hockey dismisses colleague’s FTA concerns
12 November 2014
AAP. Treasurer Joe Hockey has dismissed the concerns of a senior Liberal colleague over a free-trade agreement with China, saying he hasn’t even seen the deal.
Australia is in the final throes of trying to secure an FTA with China when Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Canberra next week.
But Liberal senator Bill Heffernan warns an imminent deal could spell a disaster for the country without proper protections.
He questioned why the government would seek a deal with a country that didn’t have a floating currency, believing it gives Australia’s largest trading partner an unfair advantage.
Australia should learn from past trade negotiations, citing the US FTA as an example which left Australia at a huge trade disadvantage within a few years of its signing, he said.
"Bill Heffernan hasn’t seen the China FTA," Mr Hockey responded on 5AA radio in Adelaide on Tuesday.
An FTA with China will provide Australian businesses with massive opportunities that they don’t get today, he said.
HSBC chief economist for Australia and New Zealand Paul Bloxham believes China is gradually moving the Renminbi to a more market driven approach, but said currency concerns were not a strong argument against pursuing an FTA.
"New Zealand has a free trade agreement with China, it’s had one since 2008 and I don’t think it’s made any difference that the currency ... is not floated to them," he told reporters in a teleconference from Sydney.
Indeed, NZ exports to China have risen more than five-fold since signing the FTA.
Still, opposition trade spokeswoman Penny Wong described Mr Hockey’s "slap-down" of Senator Heffernan as arrogant and exposed the lack of transparency in the government’s approach to trade policy.
Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss said scoring an FTA with China would be a major achievement, but people had to be realistic about the outcome.
"It won’t be absolutely free in every regard and no other free trade agreement is," Mr Truss told reporters in Perth.
He says agriculture in particular is always a difficult issue and concedes Australia didn’t get all it wanted in the FTA with the US.
"Farmers will expect there to be benefits for agriculture in any new free-trade agreement. I think we are realistic enough to know that no one ever gets absolutely everything they want," he said.
