SYDNEY -- Sick, sick, sick. That's the only way to describe Australia's belated acceptance of a free-trade agreement with the United States. And if Canberra later gets indigestion from biting off more than it can chew in the deal, don't expect American drug companies to come to the rescue.
Only an 11th-hour compromise in the dying days of the current parliamentary session allowed the deal to pass the Senate. (U.S. President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress had already accepted the FTA.) Vitriolic debate ended only after Prime Minister John Howard gave in on how to protect Australia's unique health system from so-called rapacious American drug companies.
Thankfully, for the public's sake, the row ended as the 2004 Olympic Games opened in Athens. Only a visit to Pyongyang by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer this week has distracted attention to weightier matters.