Bipartisan committee recommends Australian parliament pass new free trade deals

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/09/bipartisan-support-for-indonesia-and-hong-kong-trade-deals-despite-union-concerns

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A bipartisan committee has recommended the Australian parliament pass new free trade agreements with Indonesia and Hong Kong as soon as possible, saying there is “overwhelming support” for the deals that will unlock “significant benefits” for the economy.

But amid resistance from the union movement, which has raised concerns about investor state settlement dispute clauses and labour market access, the Greens have issued a dissenting report that opposes the deals, and Labor MPs have called for the agreements to include assurances about future labour market access granted to Indonesian workers.

Labor is likely to support the new trade deals, but has assured union leaders they will try to seek such concessions before supporting the enabling legislation through the parliament.

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The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, welcomed the majority report and called on Labor to ratify the deals swiftly, along with the Peruvian free trade agreement, to ensure Australian exporters could reap the benefits of more open export markets.

“I urge my parliamentary colleagues to help deliver the benefits of these trade agreements by passing the enabling legislation as soon as possible,” Birmingham said.

“If Labor are genuine in their arguments that Australia should defend the rules based trading system, engage more deeply with Indonesia and diversify our export markets then they should support the legislation required to implement these agreements, which deliver against all of those objectives.”

Labor members of the committee have pushed for the majority report to include assurances about how the agreement would apply to the flow of workers from Indonesia in future agreements that have been flagged in the existing document.

The party wants the FTA to guarantee that any future agreement relating to temporary foreign workers as contractual services suppliers will be negotiated as a treaty-level agreement, and include a commitment to labour market and skills testing to preference Australian jobs and ensure skills are up to standard.

The chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT), Liberal MP Dave Sharma, said the ratification of the trade deals was particularly important given the context of growing global economic uncertainty and mounting trade tensions.

“While dealing with different issues and contexts, these free trade agreements will create new opportunities for Australian-owned businesses in the region, and help bolster the global trading system at a time of growing uncertainty,” Sharma said.

The report also notes the risk of a retreat into protectionism in the international community, and the importance of trade deals in securing global stability.

“As protectionism rises, the original intent of an international rules-based global trading system, devised following the Second World War to minimise the risk of international conflict by promoting links between countries and furthering prosperity, is at risk of being forgotten,” the report states.

It also says that while inclusive multilateral trade deals are the preferred route to trade liberalisation and economic growth, the difficulties currently facing the system mean that bilateral and regional trade agreements are often more practical.

The majority report also recommends that the government gives due consideration to undertaking independent economic modelling of the agreements and to terminating a previous investment agreement.

In the Greens’ dissenting report, the party says that while it is supportive of trade agreements which promote and protect the environment, human rights and labour rights, it believes there is “limited” support for ratifying the agreements.

“It is our view that this support is limited to the interests of specific sectors of our economy, and does not reflect the significant and genuine concerns of the civil society, unions and human rights groups who made submissions,” the report says.

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It says the party has “serious concerns” about provisions in both the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the Australia Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement relating to investor state dispute settlement, e-commerce, temporary work visa programs, and limiting the regulatory capacity of the government.

It also objects to signing a new trade and investment deal with Hong Kong while “peaceful, pro-democracy protesters are being violently suppressed”.

“In the last week alone we have seen the Hong Kong police employ excessive use of force, shooting a teenager at point blank range and blinding a journalist in one eye with a rubber bullet, amongst other human rights violations,” the report says.

Sharma said that JSCOT had heard from witnesses about the ongoing civil disturbances and political instability in Hong Kong, and said the committee supported “a peaceful resolution of these issues”.

“The committee recognises that the preservation of Hong Kong’s unique status under the Basic Law, under which it enjoys a high measure of autonomy, is in Australia’s national interest, and views ratification of the agreement as a means of supporting this unique status.”