Greens Trade spokesperson Senator Peter Whish-Wilson and Employment & Workplace Relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said Labor has caved into the government on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “This is a second-rate agreement created by a fundamentally flawed trade process.

“Today, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) has rubber-stamped the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) without any independent analysis of the costs and benefits of the Agreement,” said Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, the Greens spokesperson on Trade,

“Even according to the government’s own analysis this deal will supposedly create only a few thousand jobs over the next twenty years and cost billions in revenue.

The Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says that Labor’s proposed Migration Act amendments do not provide sufficient protections for workers, nor are they are a justification for passing this deal.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “If we had an open and inclusive trade treaty process the passing of ChAFTA into legislation would not be in such a political mess.

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson makes the following comments regarding the recent portfolio shuffle:

“It is disappointing that Prime Minister Turnbull hasn’t used this opportunity to bring a new set of eyes and leadership to the Trade portfolio.

“Andrew Robb is a ‘free trade fossil’, a champion for an-out of-touch and broken trade treaty system that is selling us all down the river.

Today in Senate question time, Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, asked why the government had made such a basic error of mathematics in estimating that will be an additional 178,000 jobs created from their three North Asian trade agreements when their own modelling shows that there will be just 5,434.

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson reproaches the government for introducing the enabling legislation for the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) over a month before the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has provided its report into the agreement.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “The government, by introducing the enabling Legislation before Parliament has had the opportunity to scrutinise the ChAFTA agreement, shows its interest lies in the politics of the agreement rather than in securing a good outcome.

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, is calling on Labor to refuse to pass the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) while it still contains an open-ended Investor-State Dispute-Settlement (ISDS) provision.

Today on morning radio, the Labor Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, said, “We want to see the China Free Trade Agreement implemented… Those concerns can be dealt with by the Government… They don't need to reopen the agreements, the agreement with China. They don't need to go back to Beijing and renegotiate.”

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says the Government’s sales pitch for the China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) is reaching hysterical levels.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Treasury wrote in the 2010 Blue Book that ‘the potential benefits of the Free Trade Agreements currently under negotiation [like ChAFTA] have been oversold and the negatives largely ignored,’ and this is exactly what we are hearing from the Government today.

The Greens’ spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says the Abbott Government’s radical free trade agenda risks impacting on day-to-day domestic policy issues including our ability to respond such crises as the frozen berry contamination scare of this week.

Senator Whish-Wilson said “Current and future trade agreements are weakening our sovereign ability to set stringent food safety, food labelling and quarantine standards.

The Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson says that the impending China trade deal will allow Chinese private and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to sue the Australian government over public interest legislation that affects their investment.