http://www.cfmeu.net.au/news/five-ways-the-china-australia-free-trade-agreement-is-unlike-any-before-it
Six ways the China Australia Free Trade Agreement is unlike any before it
The China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) is unprecedented in Australian history, according to an analysis by a union that has identified six ways in which ChAFTA is unlike any other free trade agreement signed by Australia.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has carefully examined the China Australia Free Trade Agreement, signed by Australia’s Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb and China’s Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng in Canberra last month.
“Andrew Robb has made a number of claims about the Agreement which are grossly misleading and false,” the CFMEU National Secretary, Michael O’Connor, said today. “Our analysis of the Agreement identifies six key ways ChAFTA is unlike any Free Trade Agreement signed by Australia with any other country before it.
“The Agreement sells out Australian workers. There are new and unprecedented provisions within it to allow Chinese companies to bring in semi-skilled workers, remove mandatory assessments of Chinese workers in skilled trades, do away with local labour market testing, and grant Chinese citizens working holiday visas that are not reciprocal for Australian citizens.
“In a period of extreme unemployment in Australia, this Agreement is unconscionable.”
The six ways in which the ChAFTA is different to any other agreement:
ChAFTA includes 457 visas for semi-skilled workers in the ‘Infrastructure Facilitation Arrangements’ (IFAs) in the labour mobility package. Australia has never before permitted 457 visas for semi-skilled workers in an FTA deal under Labor or even Coalition governments, including the Howard administration. ChAFTA includes Infrastructure Facilitation Arrangements (IFAs), which is unprecedented. While IFAs are superficially similar to Labor’s Enterprise Migration Agreements Labor never embedded them in an FTA package deal with a foreign government. The Coalition’s IFAs are very different to EMAs. The threshold for EMAs was $2 billion with a workforce of at least 1,500. The threshold for IFAs in ChAFTA is only $150 million and no minimum workforce size. EMAs were also restricted to major resource projects, whereas IFAs are available for many sectors. EMAs required justification for skill shortage and mandatory labour market testing – neither of which are required under IFAs. ChAFTA includes unprecedented provisions granting Chinese citizens new rights in the standard 457 Visa program while removing Australian worker rights, including a radical new clause that removes labour market testing – the obligation for employers to look for qualified local workers first – for all Chinese citizens entering Australia ‘in order to temporarily work under an employment contract’. In previous FTAs, this international obligation was restricted to limited and defined categories listed in the FTAs, and did not extend to all skilled workers in the entire standard 457 Visa program. ChAFTA also contains an extraordinary broadening of ‘labour market testing’ and new built-in mechanisms for even further ‘liberalisation’ of the 457 visa and other temporary work visa programs. An unprecedented side-letter to the Agreement removes mandatory 457 Visa skills assessments for Chinese citizens in 10 skilled trades and commits Australia to removing these assessments for all other listed trades within 2-5 years. The China FTA includes an historic, non-reciprocal ‘Work and Holiday’ visa agreement that provides ‘up to 5,000’ 462 visas each year for young Chinese to live and work in Australia for a year with no reciprocal visa arrangement for any young Australians to visit and work in China. All Chinese 462 visa holders will be eligible for 457 visas, with no LMT obligation on their employers.The China Australia Free Trade Agreement has to be ratified by Parliament.
The analysis can be found here.