[Ip-health] Changes in Australia's Px Benefits Scheme in US-Australia FTA negotiations

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 10:12:13 -0500

This is an excerpt from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's
interview with Trade Minister Mark Vaile on upcoming talks over a
possible US-Australia free trade agreement.  PhRMA would like Australia
to end its Pbn

http://www.abc.net.au/am/s797563.htm

Trade Minister discusses free trade deal
March 4, 2003

<snip>

LOUISE YAXLEY: So if Australia wants to get more beef in [to the US],
more of its sugar etcetera, surely the US wants some sort of
concessions, among those access for US drug companies to Australia? They
want changes to our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to subsidise
medicine.

Is that on the table as far as Australia is concerned?

MARK VAILE: There have been a whole range of issues that have been
flagged at the outset and we've never made a secret of the fact that we
know this is going to be a tough negotiation.

We don't know whether there is going to be a positive outcome but we do
believe it is worth pursuing, in the interests of our economy and our
nation for the future, to draw our economy closer to the largest and
most powerful economy in the world.

You raised pharmaceutical benefits. Yes, I mean, PhRMA, in America, the
lobby group in America, has flagged their interest in wanting to discuss
that but...

LOUISE YAXLEY: And will the Australian Government agree?

MARK VAILE: Just let me finish my point.

But also, the representatives of PhRMA in Australia, have also written
to me and notified us that they recognise the importance of the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in Australia, and what we're not going to
do is conclude a deal, we're not going to negotiate away our ability to
implement good public policy in terms of providing these public services
like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, like education and other
services. Of course we're not.

But we've always said we're prepared to have a discussion in terms of
how these policies are implemented and I think that what we will find,
once we get into those discussions, there's an element of ignorance in
how it actually operates.

We found this with the quarantine system.

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This is a transcript of AM broadcast at 08:00 AEST on local radio.

Trade Minister discusses free trade deal

AM - Tuesday, March  4, 2003 8:14

LINDA MOTTRAM: This month Australia and the United States will start the
hard bargaining over a proposed free trade deal. It is full of hurdles
and the Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, has already conceded that without
better access to US markets for Australian agricultural produce, the
deal would not be worth doing.

While trade analysts continue to warn that the proposed US/Australia
agreement could damage the Australian economy rather than help it.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile is in our studio in Canberra this morning
speaking to Louise Yaxley.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Well Mark Vaile, American farmers have recently won
massive new protection from their government, and you have conceded that
you won't get full access for Australian agriculture.

So can you tell Australian farmers just how much of our dairy, beef and
sugar they will have to take to make this worthwhile?

MARK VAILE: Louise, we are embarking on this negotiation with the US
administration with a view to improving the circumstances in terms of
access, particularly for agriculture, but other exports that we sell to
the United States like fast ferries, like cars out of the automotive
sector.

But as far as agriculture is concerned, your point in terms of the
support that farmers in America recently won, I mean that level of
domestic support is legal under the WTO. We are trying to negotiate that
out of the system in the WTO.

What we are looking at negotiating within a free trade agreement is to
increase market access, open up those quotas. For example, we have
access for 378,000 tonnes of beef at the moment. We want to see that
increase so we can sell more Australian beef into that market.

In terms of dairy and cotton and sugar, there are limitations, quota
restrictions, that we want to see expanded.

Now if you take it to its natural conclusion, you might end up with a
completely open market with no restrictions, but if we ended up
negotiating an expansion of those existing quotas so our farmers could
sell more sugar, more beef, more dairy products into that market, it's
worth pursuing.

LOUISE YAXLEY: So if Australia wants to get more beef in, more of its
sugar etcetera, surely the US wants some sort of concessions, among
those access for US drug companies to Australia? They want changes to
our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to subsidise medicine.