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Articles on Free trade

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Trade among African countries is the lowest globally as barriers to the easy movement of goods across borders remain. Reuters/James Akena

What African countries must do to boost trade among themselves

Sub-Saharan African countries have the lowest trade among themselves compared with other regions. This is why there has been a major focus on reducing red tape and other non-tariff trade barriers
Republicans and Democrats have a hard time agreeing on anything, but the issue of trade seems to defy party affiliation. Teeter totter via www.shutterstock.com

Why fight over free trade confounds partisan divide

The passage of fast-track trading authority represents a rare moment of bipartisan compromise. How did it happen?
The fight over fast-track trade authority increasingly resembles a Shakespearean tragedy. Tempest via www.shutterstock.com

Obama, Shakespeare and the aborted legacy of the Trans-Pacific trade agreement

Events in Washington this week on the proposed historic 12-member Trans-Pacific trade agreement have had all the key elements of a Shakespearean tragedy. A resolute, noble and well-intentioned ruler (played…
Australian cattle wait to be loaded onto a ship to Indonesia. Their voyage to the United States would be even longer. AAP Image/Xavier La Canna

Why exporting live cattle to the United States is a bad idea

Australia’s cattle industry is keen to begin live exports to the United States. But America is very different to existing live export markets such as Indonesia, making the move much more ethically fraught.
A still from a NSW election ad, run on television and online, which says “selling the electricity network is wrong; selling it to another country is just not on”. CFMEU Mining/YouTube

Playing the China card may win votes, but it’s bad for Australia

Labor and the unions have decided to play the China card in the NSW election. Such scare campaigns ignore the facts, including that Australia has invested almost as much in China as China has here.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb hasn’t dropped the ball on India. Graham Crouch/DFAT/AAP

India-Australia trade push another win for bilateralism

Australia’s trade mission to India under Andrew Robb last week provided a much needed impetus to conclude an Australia-India free trade agreement in 2015. This would be a crowning achievement for the current…
Direct negotiations between top leaders may be the best and only way to get significant trade deals done, which requires fast-track authority. Reuters

Updating ‘fast-track’ is key to getting a trade deal in 2015

With the resounding Republican victory in November’s midterm elections, most pundits are despairing that Congress and President Barack Obama will find any areas for cooperation in the coming two years…
The China-Australia FTA is more important to Canberra than Beijing, placing China at a distinct advantage. www.shutterstock.com

The noodle-bowl effect: Australian trade is increasingly complex

Fact: over 585 regional trade agreements have been signed. Almost 400 are already operating. Australia is a signatory to at least 12 of them. An intricate web of cross-cutting free trade agreements (FTAs…
Advocates of free trade often overlook the goals - and the people - that free trade deals leave behind. Jeff Tan/AAP

Beware overselling the case for free trade

Following a fortnight of intense Australian international engagement in APEC and the G20, last week saw the culmination of nearly a decade’s worth of negotiations with China over a much-anticipated free…
Latin American countries, including Argentina, represent a significant trade opportunity for Australia. Alex Proimos/Flickr

Latin America the overlooked trade giant of Australia’s G20

While much of Australia’s media has been covering Abbott’s macho stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the G20 meetings will be focusing on how best to improve global trade, which severely declined…
Australia’s reputation for strict farming standards helped its beef industry weather the BSE crisis. Malcolm Paterson/CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons

Australia shouldn’t sacrifice food safety standards for free trade

Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this Free Trade Scorecard series…

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