Oz trade pact a reality

Labor Party insists on changes to protect content regs, meds

By DON GROVES

SYDNEY -- The U.S.-Australia free trade agreement is set to be approved by Parliament after Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday reluctantly accepted amendments demanded by the opposition Labor Party.

Labor had insisted on changes to protect local content regs and to ensure Australians would continue to receive affordable medicines.

Howard, whose government is facing an election before the end of this year, told reporters he believed the changes relating to medicines were "possibly inconsistent with the spirit" of the trade deal, but he accepted them nonetheless.

At Labor's insistence, the Parliament, rather than the regulatory Australian Broadcasting Authority, will have sole right of approval over any dilution of the 55% local content quota applying to commercial TV networks.

Under the FTA, that level cannot be increased, and if it is lowered, it cannot be raised subsequently. The pact raises copyright protection from 50 to 70 years after the creator's death.

The Senate is expected it pass the enabling legislation as early as today and it would become law Jan. 1.

The actors' guild had opposed the pact, fearing it would lead to a diminishment of Australian content on existing and new media.