TPP: Tear up other trade agreements or risk becoming a 'noodle bowl', warns business

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TPP: Tear up other trade agreements or risk becoming a 'noodle bowl', warns business

By Eryk Bagshaw
Updated

The Trans-Pacific-Partnership risks falling into a complex "noodle bowl" of trade agreements unless Australia's bilaterals with eight of the countries are torn up, a leading business lobby group says, as early resistance threatens to stop the deal being ratified in Parliament.

Under a proposal from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, bilateral trade agreements with Japan, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei would be thrown in the bin and replaced with the broad sweeping powers of the so-called TPP11.

The revival of the deal, reached overnight in Tokyo, was followed on Wednesday by widespread calls for a full Productivity Commission review of its merits and the inadvertent release of key details of TPP11 by the Prime Minister's Office that shed some light on the otherwise vague details of the agreement.

Foreign investments from private investors worth under $1 billion from countries including Mexico, Canada and Malaysia would no longer be subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval, while Labor market testing in some categories would also be waived for countries such as Singapore and Mexico, potentially setting up a clash with the unions.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks with the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks with the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.

"The 'noodle bowl' is only going to be exacerbated by the TPP," said the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's director of trade Bryan Clark.

"To some extent this is another agreement that is going to be laid over the top other agreements we already have."

The agriculture and the services sectors – two of Australia's largest industries – are the most likely to gain from the agreement through unprecedented access to Japanese markets that will see new access for rice products for the first time in 20 years and the elimination of all tariffs on sheepmeat, cotton, wool, seafood, horticulture and wine across the 11 member countries.

The newly named Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has emerged from the 2015 TPP that was killed off by US President Donald Trump, still faces months of scrutiny after it is formally signed in March. It will have to go through a full Parliamentary ratification process and could face another Senate inquiry, pushing out the full implementation of the deal until the second half of this year.

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Labor MP Jason Clare

Labor MP Jason Clare Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Labor, the Greens and the key crossbench votes of the Nick Xenophon Team all called for independent modelling of the deal on Wednesday, stating the government should not assume it will pass Parliament.

"We have just found out today that it's been finalised overnight in Japan and now it's an opportunity for the Parliament and the Australian people to get the details of what's in that agreement," said Labor's trade spokesman Jason Clare.

The empty seat (foreground) allocated for Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The empty seat (foreground) allocated for Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.Credit: AAP

NXT senator Rex Patrick demanded the removal of clauses that allowed foreign corporations to mount costly challenges to the federal government and the decisions of Australian courts.

Last year, US tobacco giant Philip Morris was ordered to pay back millions of dollars in costs after it launched action under similar provisions already in place a separate free trade agreement in a bid to kill off plain packaging laws.

World Bank forecast impact of TPP on GDP growth by 2030.

World Bank forecast impact of TPP on GDP growth by 2030.Credit: World Bank report

"These provisions are an affront to our sovereignty," said Senator Patrick.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry believes now is the time for a full cost-benefit analysis by the Productivity Commission.

One of US President Donald Trump's first acts was an executive order to withdraw from the TPP.

One of US President Donald Trump's first acts was an executive order to withdraw from the TPP.Credit: Daniel Acker

"We need to know that these reforms efforts are actually going to deliver what is expected of them and we would expect the government should be able to receive an independent arms length assessment," said Mr Clark.

Research by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in October found that without the US, who pulled out of the agreement in 2017, the TPP11 would generate $US147 billion in global income benefits by 2030, compared to $US492 billion with the US involved.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the TPP "would create thousands of jobs" and was completed "at a time when many people said it couldn't be done after President Trump was elected".

The government's own modelling showed that when the US was still in the TPP it would have generated 5434 additional jobs by 2035, equivalent to less than five jobs per week.

A further analysis by the World Bank found that in 15 years it would have boosted the economy by 0.7 per cent, or 0.05 per cent per year.

Internationally,the last-minute agreement of Canada could be a sign it is trying to wedge the Trump Administration on the North American Free Trade Agreement, who along with Mexico, are wary of the agreement coming under more threat through Mr Trump's protectionist policies.

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said there were some benefits to the United States not being part of the agreement despite its large economy, because it was also a large competitor in agricultural exports.

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"The fact they're out of this agreement, we're not completely unhappy about that," Mr Mahar said.

with Patrick Hatch

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