Trade Minister Simon Birmingham will use an Asia Society speech to criticise Labor’s stance on free-trade agreements. Labor is expected to seek to renegotiate the newly-signed trade deal with Indonesia if it wins the 2019 federal election. Birmingham will argue that Labor is jeopardising future trade negotiations, and he will allege that unions are influencing the party’s trade policy. From The Australian:
Senator Birmingham said the Labor trade policy, released last year, would make it “next to impossible” to negotiate future deals and exposed Labor for “turning their back on the legacy of Hawke, Keating and John Button… “Labor is being influenced by self-interested unions and others placing obstacles in the way of finalising FTAs”…
