Aussie sugar could get sweet FTA
ABC Rural | 22 Nov 2013
Aussie sugar could get sweet FTA
By Charlie McKillop
There’s concern sugar is again at risk of being dealt out of negotiations that would end protection barriers between Australia and its key trading partners.
The Australian Sugar Industry Alliance is demanding sugar’s inclusion in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP), the long-running trade negotiations between 12 Pacific Rim countries, including Japan and the United States.
Sugar was controversially dumped from the US Free Trade Agreement in 2004, a decision the industry says it cannot afford to be repeated.
Sugar marketer Queensland Sugar Limited, which handles about 90 per cent of Australia’s $1.7 billion sugar exports, has been involved in ongoing high-level meetings on the TPP and separate FTAs with Japan and Korea.
Chief executive officer Greg Beashel says sugar was left out of the US FTA in 2008 and it’s a mistake the industry cannot afford to be repeated.
"Of course, we’re concerned about that and we’re putting in a huge effort to make sure that doesn’t happen," he said.
"We’ve spent a lot of time in Canberra, we’ve spent time overseas, we’ve had representatives at every single negotiation of the Trans Pacific Partnership and, in fact, we were in Washington a few months ago to meet with the US representatives and talk to them about Australia’s position and talk to them about how we think it might work practically."
Mr Beashel says Australia is the second or third lowest cost producer of sugar in the world, but any competitive advantage is being eroded in a distorted global market.
"So we need a fair go and we need better access to some of these markets, particularly the US, and we’ve been arguing very strongly for sugar to be included."
The industry is also warning by agreeing to exclude sugar, Australia runs the risk of other so-called "sensitive" products, such as rice, wheat, dairy and pork, being left out of future agreements.
