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Australia’s Battle against the Common Agricultural Policy: The Fraser Government’s Trade Diplomacy and the European Community
Author(s) -
Benvenuti Andrea
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8497.00061
Subject(s) - diplomacy , battle , government (linguistics) , political science , agriculture , european community , international trade , public administration , geography , business , history , ancient history , politics , law , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy
The aim of this article is to offer a different interpretation of Fraser Government’s diplomacy towards the European Community. In particular, it will be argued that, although Fraser’s European policy was unsuccessful, this was not principally his fault since no matter what sort of approach he adopted, no major result could have been obtained from Brussels. Second, this article will argue that Fraser clearly understood the EC’s internal political dynamics and acted accordingly. If he failed to achieve results, it was not because he lacked an understanding of the complexity of the EC’s constitutional realities, but because these realities were too complex for anyone to overcome. Thirdly, it will be argued that Fraser did not attribute a disproportionate importance to agriculture, since this was far and away the most important issue for Australia.