Agriculture in the AUSFTA

Over the fold, my presentation, this week, to the 2009 Fulbright Seminar in Canberra reflecting on the first 5 years experience of the liberalization of agriculture in the Australia-USA FTA.

The first few slides are charts of current data showing a surprisingly poor performance of Australian exports to the USA in the first five years of the implementation period of the free-trade area. The second half of the presentation compares my predictions and expectations for the agreement in 2002 (before the negotiations commenced—a copy of the earlier paper is here) with subsequent experience.

My commentary on the slides showing import/export data was—in summary—that the apparently poor performance of Australian exports to the USA in the first five years of the implementation of the FTA reflected

1. an adverse movement in the $A/$US exchange rates;
2. the dramatic impact of the drought on supply of crops and some livestock, and;
3. higher prices in East Asian markets than in the USA for dairy and beef during this time.

Beef supply from Australia to the USA was affected, too, by the absence during this period of U.S. beef exports to Korea and Japan following the 2003 'outbreak' (one cow) of BSE in the United States. This ensured both high prices and a unique supply opportunity for Australian beef in those markets.

Tags for this entry: agriculture australia regional free trade united states