29 February 2004

No devil in the detail: Vaile

There would be no surprises in the fine print of the free trade deal with the United States, Federal Trade Minister Mark Vaile said today.

Mr Vaile said he expected the legal document to be available for scrutiny on Tuesday.

'We'll be releasing, hopefully on Tuesday, the legal text and a user's guide, so people can navigate their way through the text,' he told Channel 7's Sunday Sunrise program.

'But can I say this: there's been a lot of discussion and public debate over the last couple weeks since we agreed on the final outcome ... there's no devil in the detail in this.

'We've been publicly expressing exactly what's in the agreement.'



My reactions is to wait and see. After all, it'd be a tad surprising if the minister had told us the text is full of bombshells.

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