US ready to talk bilateral deals

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - President George W Bush's most senior trade official has indicated that the US is ready to begin negotiations on free-trade agreements with both New Zealand and Australia.

Although he gave no indication whether Washington would prefer to deal with the countries as a CER grouping - as New Zealand wants - Trade Representative Robert Zoellick made it clear the US intends to push hard and fast on bilateral and regional free-trade deals.

While still advocating a new World Trade Organisation negotiating round with an emphasis on agriculture, Mr Zoellick said the drive for separate deals would begin with Singapore and Vietnam.

New Zealand already has a free-trade agreement with Singapore, and Australia is negotiating one.

In testimony before the House of Representatives, Mr Zoellick said there was a growing interest in a trade agreement with Australia and, although he had not held talks with New Zealand, "I expect I will."

But he warned of sensitive issues confronting any new agreement, considered in Canberra to include action by New Zealand and Australia on US lamb import restrictions, and on access disputes over Australian sugar and cotton.

Mr Zoellick also said the Bush Administration intended to move rapidly to kick-start new free-trade agreements - the US is party to only two of the 130 international pacts at present in place - and warned prospective partners to be ready to sign up or miss out.

Seeking fast-track authority for President Bush, Mr Zoellick told the House ways and means committee that he wanted to tell other countries the US was willing to negotiate if they were serious about eliminating barriers.

"But [I will] also make clear that America will look elsewhere if they delay and that the US will move forward, and it's up to them to decide to join us or be left behind," he said.

In a message to Canberra, Mr Zoellick warned Australia to keep politics out of any new trade deal.

"In 1992 I wrote a document for President Bush about an economic plan that included a free-trade agreement with Australia, and it got caught up in Australian politics at the time.

"So I have said to my friends in both the Labor Party and the National-Liberal Coalition, since they're facing an election, that if we approach this I want to make sure it's done in a fashion that has bipartisan support in Australia."

Labor, which has been critical of what it regards as a shift in Coalition emphasis away from global talks to bilateral deals, quickly indicated that provided it did not work against a new WTO round the Opposition would support a US-Australia pact.

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer will discuss the prospect in Washington this month.

Wellington has also been pursuing a free-trade deal with the US, although gaining only tepid support from former President Bill Clinton for the P5 concept of a pact linking New Zealand, Australia, the US, Singapore and Chile.