Australia-US Free Trade Reaction Mixed

SYDNEY - Feb 9/04 - SNS -- Some agriculture groups in Australia are critical of the Australia and United States free trade agreement (AUSFTA) signed over the weekend.

Critics said no concessions were made by the U.S. government toward Australian sugar and the agreement on beef was seen as stingy.

Under the deal, Australian access to the U.S. sugar market will remain unchanged; while beef quotas will increase slowly over the next 18 years. On the other hand, quotas for Australian dairy products will increase, though enough protection remains in place to placate the U.S. based National Milk Producers Federation.

Another key issue for Australia, seeing a determined effort by the United States government to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board, was that its single-desk marketing boards not similarly suffer continuous challenges under the AUSFTA.

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