The Free Trade deal with the United States of America is due to be signed at the end of January.
A deal means you give away something you've got for something you haven't got! So, what is our Government giving away to get the USA to partly open its markets to our agricultural exports?
It could well be copyright extension from 50 years to 70 years (in the case of movies, to 95 years) which goes well beyond the international copyright treaty. Drafts of other free trade deals being negotiated with the US reveal that term extension is often a prerequisite. Such a deal could have Australians forking out tenfold more in copyright licence fees (The Age 'Next' 11.11.03).
Developing countries are looking to us to resist being pressured by the US into extending its copyright term because it will be a further detrimental barrier for them in the accessing of information and education in the print and digital arena.
All Australian libraries, universities, theatres, researchers and students will be heavily affected. Lots of works, like those of composer Bela Bartok who died in 1945, currently out of copyright and in the public domain, would be taken back into the hands of private monopoly copyright holders.
The public should be told what the actual deal involves, and debated, before being signed, Mr. Truss.
Signed: Kendall LovettThe situation created by the refusal of the Saudis to accept the 57,000 live sheep from Australia on the Cormo Express is likely to resurface. It was not that the sheep were suffering from scabby mouth that they were refused. The disease was a convenient excuse.
According to some farmers in the trade, the Federal Government has to accept the blame for the situation. It’s payback –to punish Australia for taking part in a completely unnecessary war in Iraq-- they suggest.
Obviously, what’s left alive of this shipment of sheep is coming back to Australia to be slaughtered in a secure quarantine environment. And undoubtedly, the meat industry employees Union is correct in claiming that all meat processors exporting to the Middle East employ halal accredited slaughterers (Letters 1.10.03). However, the consumers of such chilled or frozen halal meat in the Middle East are restaurants, hotels and relatively wealthy people with refrigeration. The rest of the population want hot meat freshly killed in the market because they don’t have refrigeration (Insight, 27.9.03). It’s all a matter of affordability and culture.
Prime Minister Howard says he has no intention of banning the export trade in live Australian sheep. Nevertheless, what will be his reaction if the 50,000 loaded in Fremantle aboard the Al Kuwait, or a subsequent shipment from Australia, is refused as further payback?
Kendall Lovett, Preston.