I believe in the free flow of ideas. Especially mine.

[diamonde]

I know doqz was talking about the pros and cons of the actual policies in the US presidential election. And I think that's a fine thing, because heaven knows my vehement support for Labor in this last election hinged greatly on their new policies. (I gave them my preferences last time for the dubious benefit of not being the Coalition and not overtly

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[d_benway]

Free trade might be much worse in Australia than it is here.

Canada has benefited from the fact that it costs less to make cars here (largely due to public health insurance), and due to the fact that we seem a bit more eager to support engineering industries. Resource industries have been hurt quite often, as the US suddenly imposes arbitrary barriers for political reasons.

My guess would be that if Australia gets sucked into this, rather than into a free trade agreement with Indonesia and the Phillipines, then Australia's engineering industries will get wiped out and the ag sector will take a huge hit, too. They'll probably try to block Australian steel imports, unless there's something specific in the agreement stopping it. If Australia isn't lucky, it could Argentinize your whole economy. If it is, you'll get to profit massively from the hollowing out of the American engineering industry, provided that Australia's engineering industry still exists and produces things.