Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
inflation known as ‘stagflation’, and the unravelling of the Keynesian orthodoxy in
the1970schallengedthisconsensus.TheHawke–Keatinggovernmentsresponded
by liberalising the Australian economy and opening it up to international market
forces in an effort to ensure economic security.
These policy shifts also advocated multilateral agreements to lower tariffs for
Australian resources and agricultural goods – an area where Australia retained
a comparative advantage. The record here was mixed – the conclusion of the
Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) in 1994
did contain successes for Australia, but the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which set
the framework for the EU single market, the creation of the North America Free
Trade Agreement (now USMCA), and moves by ASEAN (Association of South-
East Asian Nations) to negotiate a free trade agreement that excluded Australia,
concerned Australian policy makers. 22 Reducing trade protection barriers further
wasofparticularconcerngiventheincreasingimportanceofJapan,Chinaand
South-East Asian countries as growing economies and important markets for
Australian exports. APEC was therefore a forum that Labor has embraced to
promote liberalisation in the region, but a pan-regional APEC free trade agreement
remains elusive.
The Howard government faced many of the same challenges as Labor and,
acting upon a preference for neoliberal principles, took the view that bilateral
trade negotiations could supplement multilateral efforts. This was informed by
the difficulties of the Doha Round of the GATT and was especially a concern
about trade access in East Asia, where Australia was making little headway with
ASEAN+3 23 and signs were developing of regional and bilateral trade agendas that
excluded Australian participation. The Howard government negotiated bilateral
FTAs with Thailand, Singapore, and more controversially the USA (AUSFTA),
where political imperatives to solidify the Australian–USA relationship seemed
to be as paramount as economic considerations. 24 Multilaterally, the Howard
government was instrumental in the negotiation of the ASEAN–Australia–New
Zealand free trade agreement 25 and provided funds to the International Monetary
Fund as part of the bailout package during the Asian Financial Crisis (1997–98).
Since then, further bilateral FTAs have been negotiated with Chile, Malaysia,
South Korea, Japan and China and multilaterally with the Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the withdrawal
of the USA from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in 2016. This reflects
the continuing significance of the neoliberal consensus in trade policy that has
22 Meredith and Dyster 1999, 290.
23 ASEAN+3 is a forum for cooperation between ASEAN members and the East Asian
nation-states Japan, China and South Korea.
24 Capling 2008, 36–7.
25 Firth 2011, 251.
588