Proposed Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN and New Zealand

Proposed Free Trade Agreement with Malaysia

February 7, 2005

The Music Council of Australia has taken a keen interest in the effects of globalisation and international trade on local culture, and has been actively involved in informing and advising government during trade negotiations under the WTO and with the USA.

The Free Trade Agreement with the USA has seriously curtailed the Australian Government's prerogative to support Australian culture by regulation especially as new media emerge and become more dominant, the government's freedom to act will be further circumscribed by the very weak reservation in the AUSFTA concerning ‘interactive media'.

Read the commentary

Especially with this example in mind, the Music Council is most concerned that the AUSFTA should not become a template for trade agreements under the WTO or with other countries or regions.

Given its past submissions with regard to GATS and the US FTA, the Council did not recapitulate in this submission the arguments for the need to regard culture as not just another good or service to be traded. One of humanity's fundamental needs is to find an identity and a sense of belongingness. It is through our culture, above all, that such an identity is articulated - as is recognised in various government documents such as the charters of the ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Australia Council for the Arts. Its expression should not be sacrificed to the trade ambitions of other countries.

The Music Council of Australia therefore strongly urged that culture should be totally excluded from any trade agreement with ASEAN or Malaysia. It urged that a line should be drawn under the AUSFTA and no more undertakings concerning culture should be given in any subsequent free trade agreement.

The submissions concerning ASEAN (February 2005) and Malaysia (October 2004) were very similar. read the submission for the ASEAN agreement

If you would like to see the Malaysia submission, contact the Music Council