All this talk of a deal with the States does this mean the 15% import duty is gone???

i think so :bounce

Nope.

Just tarrifs. An excise put on goods from OS to "level" the playing field and make local products competative against cheaper imports. In fact most of these have already gone.

The tarrifs used to be huge on most items when we were a protectionist nation. Now we are doing our best to become a third world country.

yep they screwed the farmers again

ow iam setting up my sheild at the moment.

But with the sugar farmers- Why does the fedral government have to bail them out? If the industry is not sustainable or able to make a profit why shoud it remain? Might mean a rethink of current practices, setups within the industry?

ok now runs away and hides.

Does this mean that the price of imported parts bought from Australian suppliers will be reduced accordingly??

It is imposible for the farmers here to compete against the Us on sugar as they are gaurateed a certain price by their governmant no matter what the price of world sugar is and as for countries like brazil they can employ a worker for a few bucks a day so if you can organise anyone in Aus to work for the same amount the farmers would gladly employ and also make more money.

but isn't that part of business? to take into account the costs to produce and make sure they are less than the income? if the industry has CHANGED and the labour costs are higher the industry needs to re evulate itself? What about all teh small business that go under? should the government bail out all businesses that arn't sustainable?

with regard to the us- thats some thing the government needs to aggree to and if you u don't like the present governments way of doing things, isn't it your rite to vote against them?

These agreements are never good things for real people. They may look good and have some initial benefits but in the long run only serve to further concentrate wealth in fewer hands.

The usual method is such:

"Say a small nation called Littleland whose residents live on subsistance wheat and dairy farming and fishing the lake.

Now this nation requires capital funding for health care facilities. They do not have the resources, money nor skills to build these facilities. Bigland offers a trade agreement to Littleland. Bigland will provide the material, labour and expertise. Littleland opens their markets to Bigland.

Bigland invests $100m and builds the facilities. Littleland continues with its meagre farming and fisheries. The fish, diary and wheat are sold to Bigland.

Bigland continues to protect its wheat growers with a phasing out of its tarrifs (over 18 years - sound familiar yet?). Littleland growers cannot compete and are only selling top up levels to the Bigland market. Littleland people can no longer afford their own wheat as the prices have gone up to get a return on the limited amounts being traded with Bigland.

Bigland's appetite for the native fish species of Littleland are not being filled. Littlelandians are now forced to mechanise their fishing and work full time - they begin overfishing the lake of its stock. No fish are left for Littleland as they are all being exported to fill the "gap" created by the limited penetration in the Bigland wheat market. For animal protien they begin to import beef etc creating a huge trade defecit and growing national debt.

The dairy industry is producing good product and exporting as expected to Bigland. However, due to the modernisation of the dairy industry an excess of milk is being produced. As the market price for milk is set by Bigland the Littleland peope can no longer afford to buy milk. Littleland reduces the price for domestic purchasers. Bigland sees this as not being in the spirit of FREE TRADE and demands pricing parity. Littleland is forced to drop the subsidies. The excess milk is now dumped into the lake as giving it away further errodes the trade agreement.

Littleland is now without its three major industries and its people slipping further and further into debt."


In some ways we are better off paying more for those imported good.

BIX the government pours money into small business I know from the amount I can claim on tax just from using My ABN number. But if its wrong for them to help something that is unstainable then why should I pay a medicare levy when I have not been to a doctor or a hospital in this country for years. Why not make it if you use it pay for it.
Or we could abolish the base wage system to compete with overseas countries.
No matter what governmant we have some one will not like their policies. Such is life. WE all have to live with it in one form or another as their will never be total paradise for all people.

bigland sux

Free Trade?

HotRodMatt,Costa stop it your killen me

one of my favourate sites ATM

http://www.bushin30seconds.org 

dont forget to check out the finalists page

mmm

you do realiise that if we declare war on littleland we could have all the fishOIL we want ????

Oh man... I can see this thread going to hell...........

Telstra, Foxtel, Optus, IBM, 3 & HP have announced plans to relocate all customer service call centers to Littleland in a strategic move to to increase service and cut cost.

Telstra Chairman Zigggy Zwilrfgrigfrelifg today commented "Mind your own business. And get outta my way I'm late for golf"

maybe if littleland swaps fish for VW parts from Bigland that should be ok

Whats goin on im confused,WE'RE littleland or is that to the right and down a bit.Yeah Bigland sux the big-one but littleland can kiss #ss up there with the best of them.

No we are little land cos we have the best fish

Getting back to the original question and to quote the Dept of Foreign Affairs web site, all duties on all vehicles and parts will be eliminated as soon as the agreement comes into force in about 9 months with the execption of passenger motor vehicles which will be phased from 15% to zero by 2010.

See - i knew SOMEONE would answer this in the SENSIBLE manner i expect of this forum! :P

TTFN

Ahh, The Frog has located the answer. Music to my ears, here's hoping that the dollar is still at the US80 cent mark in 9 months time (lets not start the economic debate on this one). Some goodies for the 356 could realistically be on the christmas list.

so i was right first!