BLOODY QUEENSLANDERS....... 313

I agree, we dont have a properly liberalised trading environment in agriculture.The new Doha round of WTO negotiations is a small step in the right direction, but its still not enough.

As for what we can do - I think its a process of elimination where we look at what we cant do.We cant afford to compete on protectionist terms.We simply dont have a domestic market of a size that could support the levels of protection that the EU, the US or the Japs enjoy in some of their agricultural industries.

That said, even if we could afford to protect, would we want to anyway?

We cant produce every agricultural product our consumption patterns demand, in quabreasties large enough to make them commercially viable, every nation has sturdy agricultural trade flows.But we can produce some things, like beef for instance, in huge volumes that beat subsidised compebreastion on BOTH quality and price.Wine is a value added example of how we can choose the areas where we can compete successfully. We can compete in most areas, even against subsidised compebreastion.And we have to place this in a realistic global perspective here - global trade subsidies are on a DECLINING trend in terms of their total value.So things arent getting worse in this respect, they're actually getting better.So why even try to compete in the few areas of agriculture where we clearly cant.

Holding onto dead industries hurts everyone more than dumping them does.