Indonesia/Australia FTA Scoping

In August 2007 the Australian and Indonesian governments announced the undertaking of a feasibility study into a proposed free trade agreement. The study is being conducted by an indepent company and will be finished in December 2008.

AFTINET continues to raise the problematic way that such feasibilty studies are undertaken. The economic assumptions that underpin such studies are based on unrealistic assumptions including immediate removal of all tariffs across all industries and full employment (that is workers who lose their jobs udner an FTA will immediately find employment in a new sector).

AFTINET raised our conerns that such an FTA will have on food security, environmental protection and labour rights in Indonesia. Indonesia's rice market stabilisation mechanism, Operasi  Pass Khusus (OPK), is of particular concern for farmers who are already struggling to deal with the food crisis.

For more information on AFTINET's concerns, see our submission to the feasibility study.