*The offer has been accepted, just the paper work to be completed.*

Well Vanna, they have yet to send my superfund a cheque. When they
do, they can indeed claim ownership. I will invest the proceeds
in other Australian assets.

*The country that is called Australia is just a potpourri of multi-national ownership.*

Most of the world is now that way, Vanna. We need more Australains
to own some of these assets, less Australians wasting their savings
on the pokies!

Yabby,
It is interesting that CSR stands for commercial sugar refineries, but shortly they will not have any commercial sugar refineries.

For free trade -> read trade with multinationals, many of whom dictate their own terms of trade, and have large advertising budgets to carry out consumer thought control.

If you decry lack of ownership of Australian assets, then most of the time someone imports something they are indirectly loosing Australian assets, because they are more than likely handing over money to a multinational company.

Vanna, I haven't followed the CSR story too closely, but I gather
that they want to invest more in building materials etc, I guess
its more profitable then refining sugar. Clearly they had no
Australians wanting to buy their sugar mills.

As to multi nationals, I have no problem with them. I would rather
that their products are available then not be available.

Elecrolux for instance are a multi national. They operate here
and make fridges, dishwashers etc in Australia. I buy their
products and they have in fact improved, since they took over the
old Email business. Clearly all that research done globally,
has made a difference.

If we want more of the profits from multi nationals to come to
Australia, we are free to buy a share of them.

The thing is, Australians have to get their house in order, to
be able to compete with Korea, Japan, Europe, USA etc. It seems
that the Australian public voted against freeing up the labour
market, preferring the bells and whistles option. Fair enough,
in that case companies have a good reason to not invest here.
That is the price we pay. Short term, our Australian $ is high,
but long term, if it leads to the Australian $ dropping, so be it,
we chose to go down that path.

The lamb that I produce is sold to about 50 countries. Why should
I be against free trade and its benefits? I benefit every day
from buying better products cheaper. If nobody in Australia is
willing to make something that is as good, at a fair price.

Nobody in AU can make anything that can compete with places like china with poverty labor costs. The only way to go is to come up with home grown commodities that do not have a labor cost. [ cow flatulance ] now if you can bottle it i am sure the chinese would find a use for it.
We in AU have not been told as yet, on how to compete with free trade, there has been no suggestions on how to survive the onslaught of commodities from low labor countries. Telling people to bye Au won't work. Manufactures will continue to go off shore as long as there is low labour costs elsewhere. The cost of labour is everything, Can someone explain what the idea of free trade is about.

vanna, what are your thoughts on Australian MNCs?

Should we tell them to pull out of Asia, Europe, US etc and tell local companies in those regions to fill the void?

As for teachers placing a priority on buying from Australian companies...is that their job? Then again, are they advocating "buy foreign brands"?

Tony, if Australia were self-sufficient...then what would we do when new technologies get developed? No slick new phones, TVs, clothes etc. In essence, take us back a few hundred years (when every country would steal from each other or go to war...). If (only if) we wanted to keep up with the rest of the world then we would need to become a research-intensive society as soon as possible (and without the help of foreign researchers).

579, labour costs are probably one of the major reasons why so many companies do their manufacturing in China. Most of the low cost countries now (China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh etc) are starting to demand better conditions for workers with varying degrees of success. China and India for example are moving rapidly to diversify and modernise their industries. How long they will take is anyone's guess.

As for free trade, it basically means just that: free trade. Freedom to trade across regions/countries without any interference. The reality is that free trade doesn't really exist (not even within Australia). There are protections imposed officially or unofficially: safety standards, consumer preference etc etc. Also, the fact that governments around the world intervene on "national interests" and that workers are subjected to varying degrees of restrictions (work in the US, anyone?) means that free trade is at best a goal and one that many people are working towards but as always domestic and international politics find a way to make things ever so difficult.

In this respect the US can be a good example. Internally there are few restrictions (like Australia) yet from what I gather regions (maybe not all) have kept their character/culture: The South, New York, Midwest, Alaska, Texas, Hawaii. Something that will probably occur in the EU too.

Thoughts anyone?

http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/

http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/fs/aust.pdf

Well despite all these claims of China being the source of everying,
only around 18% of our imports come from China.

But then out biggest imports: motor vehicles, petroleum products,
medicines. Not too much from China there.

579, free trade is about producing things, where they can be
produced with a comparative advantage, to the benefit of
consumers globally.

Labour is only one component of many. The Chinese today are the
world's biggest market for European luxury goods. Why? Cause
rich people want to show they are rich, so they will pay 5000$
for a Hermes handbag or 15'000$ for a Rolex watch etc.

Price is only ever one reason to buy something. Cheap consumer
goods which people can throw away if they are a dud, are produced
in China. But for high tech, we turn to Japan, or Germany or
Switzerland or the USA.

When I bought my 4wd, I bought a Japanese one, made in Thailand.
Why? Quality and reliability. Value for money.

I don't buy food products from China, as I don't trust their
food products. But they buy our meat products.

So to cut a long story short, this notion that China will produce
everything is wrong. For a start, doing business there is not as
easy as many think. But with a billion people, they are clearly
a large player on the global scene.

They are also our best customer.