bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

US-Australia

The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (or AUSFTA) was signed on 18 May 2004 and came into effect on 1 January 2005. It’s a comprehensive agreement, with chapters on: Market access for goods, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, cross-border services, financial services, electronic commerce, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition policy, labour, environment and dispute settlement.

Throughout the negotiations, the contents of the agreement were problematic for different sectors on both sides of the Pacific. US farmers managed to keep sugar out of the deal, but would face new competition from Australian dairy imports. Social opposition to the agreement ran high in Australia, the major concern being access to affordable medicine. The FTA commits Australia to provide stronger patent monopolies to US drug companies, directly compromising Australia’s Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme (PBS).

The FTA became a key electoral issue in Australia in late 2004. However, Prime Minister Howard was re-elected and came to a final accord with the Bush administration on the drugs chapter by the end of the year, thereby assuring the agreement’s entry into force at the start of 2005.

One year into the FTA, debate broke out in Australia over the impacts. In the first year, US exports to Australia had shot up while Australia’s exports to the US had shot down. Further, US drug companies were not happy with the limited safeguards left to protect Australia’s PBS and started moving to have them scrapped.

In 2007, Australia registered a $13.6 billion trade deficit with the US, its largest ever with any trading partner. The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research estimates that the US-Australia FTA could cost the Australian economy up to $50 billion and 200,000 jobs.

last update: May 2012

Photo: Jackaranga / Wikipedia / Public domain


How Google could sue Australia for billions
Google and Facebook could sue the government for billions of dollars over a proposed law to force the digital giants to pay publishers for displaying news content, by seizing on investment clauses in the Australia-Singapore trade agreement.
US attacks Australia’s ’extraordinary’ plan to make Google and Facebook pay for news
The US has said the proposed legislation could run counter to the US-Australia free trade agreement.
Secrecy shrouds cost to Australian taxpayer in controversial trade dispute
US energy company is seeking $350m in compensation in so-called ISDS case over gas turbines in Pilbara.
US and Australia meet to review bilateral FTA
Officials from the United States and Australia held a meeting of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement Joint Committee to review the implementation of the FTA.
Australia-US free trade agreement leaves US companies in the lurch
The lack of a defined procedure under the AUSFTA is extremely prejudicial to U.S. companies and banks: chairman of APR Energy
High Court the final authority? Think again
US mining company Nucoil is using a free trade agreement to put pressure on the Australian government to pay compensation over cancelled licences.
US FTA claim could cost taxpayers $260 million
Australian taxpayers are facing a $260 million legal claim under the US-Australia free-trade agreement over the alleged expropriation of four gas turbines.
The costs of Australia’s ‘free trade’ agreement with America
The critics were right. Ten years after the Australia–United States free trade agreement (AUSFTA) came into force, new analysis of the data shows that the agreement diverted trade away from the lowest cost sources.
Australia: PM seeks to broaden free trade deal with US
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will use a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House to seek the reopening of the decade-long agreement, News Corp Australia reports.
Free-trade pact may muddy GrainCorp deal
A side deal in the free-trade agreement with the United States that the Howard government negotiated in 2004 is a wildcard as the Abbott government deals with divisions in its ranks over Archer Daniels Midland’s $3.4 billion takeover offer for GrainCorp, the biggest grain handler in eastern Australia.