How Diplomatic Lobbying Affected the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: A, , course: International Relations, language: English, abstract: The first of January 2005 marked a new beginning for the country of the USA and Australia in their quest towards prosperity, economic integration, and a strong partnership. As heralded by the Australian government of the time, “once in a lifetime deal” that tied them to the world’s biggest economy and the most powerful country. Thus, it came into force the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) as a bilateral trading partnership between the two countries. The Trade Agreement that was proposed by the USA to Australia as long back as in 1945, but not until the strong tie between George W Bush and John Howard, that the proposal finally started moulding into shape. With President Bush giving a green signal for the Free Trade Agreement to be taken forward in 2001, the Centre for International Economics (CIE) was deputed by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 2004 to make an analysis of the Economic Impact of the AUSFTA on the Australian Trade Front. CIE concluded in the prospects of large economic gains of the country. Thus the two governments celebrated the initiation of a ‘win-win’ trade agreement which would go beyond economic impacts and would result in a strong partnership between the two countries in the next round of WTO DOHA multilateral trade negotiations and result in a successful relationship with their counterparts in the Asia Pacific region.