The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is going to support the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In my opinion, this outcome has seemed likely for a while now, but the ALP were just waiting for the completion of the Sentate inquiry so that they had an excuse for delaying their decisions and an excuse for supporting the FTA. Fair enough.

This is a good thing. John Quiggin disagrees. A friend of mine once suggested that they checked the robustness of their opinion on an issue by checking what John Quiggin thought, and assuming the opposite was correct. While this might be a bit harsh on Quiggin (who is one of the best left-wing economist in Australia), in this instance it seems to hold true. Quiggin claims the FTA is a reason to be dissapointed by the ALP -- but when Quiggin is dissapointed by the ALP there is a good chance that I will support them. For his part, Quiggin seems to be shifting his sympathies more towards the Greens.

In today's Australian, Labor gives free market supporters another reason to support them -- when they suggest that investment liberalisation included in the FTA should be extended to all countries. This is a very sensible policy (and one suggested in the Centre for International Economics AUS FTA report that I worked on).

Quiggin doesn't like the economics of the FTA, and he also doesn't like the politics. Again, I disagree. By supporting the FTA with America (and bringing back Bomber Beazley), the ALP will appeal more to the moderate pro-American middle of Australia politics as well as reducing the fears of free market people (like me). They may lose some support to the Greens. But because of compulsory preferential voting, any votes that go to the Greens will end up with the ALP anyway.