Australia - Us Free Trade Agreement

Well a FTA has been signed, they sold out the Australian Sugar Industry and it looks like Australia's gonna get similar DMCA laws to the US Not good at all...


http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us.html



http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/...l_property.html

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Key Points in the Intellectual Property Chapter include:

Stronger protection for copyright owners, including:
Agreement to implement the WIPO Internet Treaties by entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement: these being world intellectual property standards on treatment of digital copyright material
An expeditious process that allows for copyright owners to engage with Internet Service Providers and subscribers to deal with allegedly infringing copyright material on the Internet.
Tighter controls on circumventing technological protection of copyright material together with a mechanism for examining and as necessary introducing public interest exceptions in relation to technological protection measures, along with a transition period to provide the opportunity for public submissions in this area, as well as other measures in relation to circumvention tools
Agreement on standards of copyright protection
An increased term of protection for copyright material
Enhanced intellectual property enforcement, including:
increased criminal and civil protection against the unlawful decoding of encrypted program carrying satellite TV signals - which will assist the Pay TV industry enforce its rights
agreed criminal standards for copyright infringement and on remedies and penalties
Reinforcement of Australia's existing framework for industrial property protection,

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Hope you guys didn't get hosed as badly as we did with NAFTA (which, supposedly, the government's working to get out of...hmm).

:ninja:

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Originally posted by MagicNakor@8 February 2004 - 19:07
Hope you guys didn't get hosed as badly as we did with NAFTA (which, supposedly, the government's working to get out of...hmm).

:ninja:

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damn North American Free Trade Agreemant :angry:

From my understanding the agreement doesn’t become active until they've been approved by both parliaments, the Labor party here says they wont pass it because it didn’t include Sugar, It will get though the House of Reps thou because the Liberals(conservatives) control it with a majority but the senate is a different matter, Labor and Liberal both have a large amount of seats but nether has a majority so they rely on what’s called the "balance of power" which is a mixture of Independents(country mindset conservatives), Greens and Democrats(centre politics).

Although you can’t trust Labor to stick to there position...

Then there’s the US, I don’t know much about arrangements but I heard the Republicans have majorities in both houses but this in itself not does not guarantee bills to be passed as there need to be a certain number of votes not just a majority, also the politics seem a little different with politicians have more free will than bowing to there Parties / Presidents demands...

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Originally posted by cpt_azad+9 February 2004 - 04:57--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (cpt_azad @ 9 February 2004 - 04:57)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-MagicNakor@8 February 2004 - 19:07
Hope you guys didn&#39;t get hosed as badly as we did with NAFTA (which, supposedly, the government&#39;s working to get out of...hmm).

:ninja:

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damn North American Free Trade Agreemant :angry: [/b][/quote]
Free for the United States, maybe.

:ninja:

Forget the sugar - it includes broadcasting and content&#33; Now the US can ship all their re-runs over here and swamp our TV and cable stations with leftover daytime movies and all the sitcoms that got axed after the first series&#33;

Help&#33; I want AUSTRALIAN TV&#33;

No offence yanks, but your TV programmes SUCK&#33;

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Originally posted by Alex H@10 February 2004 - 00:58
Forget the sugar - it includes broadcasting and content&#33; Now the US can ship all their re-runs over here and swamp our TV and cable stations with leftover daytime movies and all the sitcoms that got axed after the first series&#33;

Help&#33; I want AUSTRALIAN TV&#33;

No offence yanks, but your TV programmes SUCK&#33;

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Well it looks like the PBS( Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) which was suppose to be left untouched has been.


http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/.../10_health.html

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Australia will make improvements to the transparency and timeliness of PBS processes and provide more opportunities for companies seeking listing of new medicines on the PBS to have input to the process.

o Australians will gain a better understanding of decisions about adding new medicines to the PBS and will benefit from faster access to subsidies for new prescription medicines.

Access by Australians to affordable medicines under the PBS will be maintained under the AUSFTA.
o The Government has delivered on its commitment that the price of prescription medicines will not increase as a result of this Agreement.

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From that sentance highlighted in bold it sounds more likley prices will rise...

So long yet more American jobs, why pay us, when you can pay someone 5 times less in another country.......

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Originally posted by HeavyMetalParkingLot@11 February 2004 - 00:01
So long yet more American jobs, why pay us, when you can pay someone 5 times less in another country.......

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I think pay and conditions in Australia, depending on the area your employed in could be considered better....

Granted, the Australian dollar is roughly equivalent to the Canadian Dollar. What I mean is, the majority of the jobs will be factory work, which is an unskilled trade, therefore not needing people with decent education who would be able to earn a good living. They will be hiring the ones who will work the cheapest. Just like in Mexico currently, they hire the people who work for like a dollar a day.

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Originally posted by HeavyMetalParkingLot@11 February 2004 - 04:12
Granted, the Australian dollar is roughly equivalent to the Canadian Dollar. What I mean is, the majority of the jobs will be factory work, which is an unskilled trade, therefore not needing people with decent education who would be able to earn a good living. They will be hiring the ones who will work the cheapest. Just like in Mexico currently, they hire the people who work for like a dollar a day.

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Well in Australia we have an award system combined with the Industrial relations commision which sets mininum rates for diffrent Industries and not a mininum wage like the US that covers every thing, this minium wage is lower than what alot Australians working in factorys get, we also have compusory superanuation which is about 8 - 9% of the weekly wage on top, i&#39;m not sure if it&#39;s actually cheaper to employee Australians over Americans, of course there other costs in the manufacture of goods which could make it a better choice....

Overall I don’t see the FTA as good for Australia, like having DMCA laws similar to the US never mind the affect on the PBS and if it&#39;s anything like NAFTA it will be disastrous, giving corporations the power to sue if regulatory decisions go against them and the like. :angry:

Hopefuly the Australian parliament wont pass it...

I love how it&#39;s going to take 18 years for our Beef to become free trade....

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Our beef quota, currently 378,000 tonnes, will be substantially increased - growing by 18.5 per cent over 18 years, then effectively becoming free trade.

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I&#39;m hoping it wont pass the Senate.... if Mr Howard thinks this is a once in a generation opportunity too good to pass up then he needs to stop and look at which generation we are currently in....

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Originally posted by HeavyMetalParkingLot@11 February 2004 - 04:12
Granted, the Australian dollar is roughly equivalent to the Canadian Dollar. What I mean is, the majority of the jobs will be factory work, which is an unskilled trade, therefore not needing people with decent education who would be able to earn a good living. They will be hiring the ones who will work the cheapest. Just like in Mexico currently, they hire the people who work for like a dollar a day.

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Ha&#33; No, we&#39;re not getting &#036;1 a day over here. Like junkyardking mentioned we have specific award rates of pay (bless the unions&#33;) Australia has a bigger percentage of union members than the US, and union members get better pay than non-union members.

So, yes we get paid more, but the value of our dollar cancels the extra income out, so we pretty much get paid about the same.

Personally, I think Australians have a better quality of life than Americans as we have better services, such as Medicare (which although isn&#39;t perfect, seems to be working better than the US model), our social security system (our Work-for-the-Dole program sucks, but is also working better than the US Welfare-to-Work), and our Award rates for wages are much better than the US system of minimum wages.

Oh yeah, and we have better beaches&#33;

Basically, I think we have more "middle ground" socially, than America were the gap between rich and poor seems more extreme.

Will KL protect Australian users from being sued. Is there a way we can be traced?

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Originally posted by Alex H@10 February 2004 - 10:28
Forget the sugar - it includes broadcasting and content&#33; Now the US can ship all their re-runs over here and swamp our TV and cable stations with leftover daytime movies and all the sitcoms that got axed after the first series&#33;

Help&#33; I want AUSTRALIAN TV&#33;

No offence yanks, but your TV programmes SUCK&#33;

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I hate to tell you this mate, but thats already been happening for the last 20 years.
Haven&#39;t you noticed? :lol: :lol:

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[i]Originally posted by uNz[i]+13 February 2004 - 12:08--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (uNz @ 13 February 2004 - 12:08)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Alex H@10 February 2004 - 10:28
Forget the sugar - it includes broadcasting and content&#33; Now the US can ship all their re-runs over here and swamp our TV and cable stations with leftover daytime movies and all the sitcoms that got axed after the first series&#33;

Help&#33; I want AUSTRALIAN TV&#33;

No offence yanks, but your TV programmes SUCK&#33;

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I hate to tell you this mate, but thats already been happening for the last 20 years.
Haven&#39;t you noticed? :lol: :lol: [/b][/quote]
:lol: B)

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Originally posted by Alex H+12 February 2004 - 15:03--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Alex H @ 12 February 2004 - 15:03)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-HeavyMetalParkingLot@11 February 2004 - 04:12
Granted, the Australian dollar is roughly equivalent to the Canadian Dollar. What I mean is, the majority of the jobs will be factory work, which is an unskilled trade, therefore not needing people with decent education who would be able to earn a good living. They will be hiring the ones who will work the cheapest. Just like in Mexico currently, they hire the people who work for like a dollar a day.

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Ha&#33; No, we&#39;re not getting &#036;1 a day over here. Like junkyardking mentioned we have specific award rates of pay (bless the unions&#33;) Australia has a bigger percentage of union members than the US, and union members get better pay than non-union members.

So, yes we get paid more, but the value of our dollar cancels the extra income out, so we pretty much get paid about the same.

Personally, I think Australians have a better quality of life than Americans as we have better services, such as Medicare (which although isn&#39;t perfect, seems to be working better than the US model), our social security system (our Work-for-the-Dole program sucks, but is also working better than the US Welfare-to-Work), and our Award rates for wages are much better than the US system of minimum wages.

Oh yeah, and we have better beaches&#33;

Basically, I think we have more "middle ground" socially, than America were the gap between rich and poor seems more extreme. [/b][/quote]
bullshit we get a better living down here

our technology is 2 years behind America and 25% of us can only get broadband

for example Telstra are a monopoly they won&#39;t pay to upgrade lines US is all government paid

yeah lets pay &#036;240 a month for a 1MB connection when 3mb doesn&#39;t even exist here yet the US get it for about say &#036;50

and yes correct we do get paid allot more but our price for products are insane

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Originally posted by ||0@13 February 2004 - 00:00
Will KL protect Australian users from being sued. Is there a way we can be traced?

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we don&#39;t need to worry about the RIAA it&#39;s the AIAA that we need to worry about

tell me one Australian who is being sued??

I am fearless