Free Blood at Yellow Water by Ian W Taylor Page A

and said, “Yes, I am
also concerned about the slow pace of the discussions. I would be
interested to hear your suggestions, Jake.”
    Jake drew a deep breath and thought to
himself “What the hell, here goes nothing!”
    “Well Ministers, I think the only way to go
is to take a holistic approach, include everything in the trade
provisions so that it is truly a free trade agreement (FTA) with no
exceptions. Nearly every FTA in place around the world, excluding
the Australia-New Zealand Agreement, has a long list of exceptions
and conditions. We should make this a trade agreement with no
limitations. I realise this would take a lot of political goodwill
and some major compromises from both sides.”
    Jake expanded on his ideas while the three
listened attentively. Murray looked at Jake.
    Koshi interposed, “I am not sure what
advantages there would be for Japan? Our farmers would take a lot
of convincing that such a deal would be in their interest.”
    “A compromise solution would be for
Australia to remove all barriers to investment from Japan. There
would be no limits on Japanese ownership of investments in
Australia. Japanese investment would not be subject to controls by
the Australian Investment Review Board. Japanese companies could
buy Australian land and properties which would help them develop
minerals and food production for the Japanese market. And we could
also include provisions for settlement of disputes on
investment.”
    “That would be a positive outcome Jake but
I’m still not sure it would be enough for me to sell the package to
my people,” said Koshi.
    Jake took a deep breath. “Well we could look
at the submarine contract, perhaps as a joint venture.”
    Koshi looked surprised at this because to
date the Australian Government had been reluctant to talk seriously
about including the submarine contract in the negotiations.
    “That would be of great interest to Japan,”
he said emphatically.
    Murray quickly intervened, “You have some
interesting thoughts there Jake but what you are proposing would be
difficult politically for both sides. There would be a lot of
senior people in industry and government who would have to come on
board. Could you prepare a paper outlining how this would work and
what concessions each side would have to make?”
    “Yes, I have already prepared a broad sheet
listing the issues and concessions to be made for each side and
proposing solutions.”
    “I would be interested in seeing your
document Jake,” said Koshi.
    “I’m happy to pass this on to you with the
permission of my Prime Minister,” Jake replied.
    “That’s fine by me Jake,” Murray concurred.
“Can you translate it into Japanese and pass it on to Koshi-san? If
we both see merit in Jake’s proposals, we can make that the
centrepiece of our talks, rather than go through the detail of the
issues again.”
    They finished up their lunch and Murray
turned to Koshi and said
    “Well, it’s time to get down to work,
Koshi-san. The ministerial talks start at 2 pm.”
    As they broke up and set off towards the
resort, Jake asked Koshi in Japanese if he enjoyed his lunch.
    “Yes, I did Jake, but what type of meat was
it that we had for the main course? It tasted a little like
chicken.”
    “Oh no, Koshi-san, that wasn’t chicken. It
was crocodile meat,” Jake chuckled.
    Koshi burst into laughter, bowed to Jake and
went off to his room.
    Jake rushed back to his room, pulled out his
notebook computer, worked furiously on refining his proposals and
then translated them into Japanese. He advised Jenny Antrim that
the P.M.s had agreed on a different approach and gave her his
broadsheet. He sought out Saito and gave him a copy of the version
in Japanese.
    Promptly at 2 p.m., both delegations sat
down for the introductions. Prime Minister Murray welcomed Prime
Minister Koshi and his delegation and outlined the framework for
the conference. Koshi responded in kind thanking Murray and his
delegation for their