ISDS Case Map
Australia
At least 1000 workers may be jobless within months as two Sydney car-part manufacturers plan to close, or move to Asia, as Australia moves towards a free trade agreement with China.
Despite Australian PM Howard's glee last week at being the first country to secure Chinese agreement to a bilateral free trade deal, he might find that actually realising an agreement will be a very tough assignment.
Prime Minister John Howard has conceded clinching a free trade agreement with China was more likely than with Japan.
You can't win 'em all. Fast-jetting Australian Prime Minister John Howard discovered that on his latest barnstorming through East Asia. In Beijing he was buoyed by the success of signing on to a feasibility study aimed at preceding a free trade agreement (FTA). In Tokyo he got the usual welcoming smiles but no deal on an FTA.
A former leader of Australia's governing Liberal party, John Hewson, has questioned whether a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China will provide any great benefits for Australian exporters.
Vegetable growers stood to lose $500 million a year and 5,000 jobs if Australia struck a free trade deal with China, the industry says.
Prudish about bilateral free-trade agreements just five years ago, Tokyo is now fielding partnership requests from 25 economies and regional blocs. But there is no denying an element of haphazardness in the way it is selecting some of the candidates.
The South Australian Farmers Federation (SAFF) says the introduction of a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA)with China could decimate the state's horticulture industry.
The National Farmers Federation says a free trade agreement (FTA) between Australia and Japan would be counterproductive if it did not include agriculture
There is no point proceeding with a feasibility study into a free trade agreement between Australia and Japan if agriculture is excluded from the deal, Labor says.
