It’s been said that there are two
essential qualifications that a US ambassadorial aspirant must possess: they
must be a personal friend of the President & a significant donor to the
President’s political party. Diplomacy doesn’t rate a mention. 

After allowing the position to
languish vacant for more than a year, the US has now announced the appointment
of Robert McCallum as its Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary to
Australia. 

Whilst details of Mr McCallum’s
record of generosity to the Republican Party haven’t been disclosed, there’s no
doubt he is a personal friend of the US President, George W. Bush. Indeed, they
would seem to be more than just friends, given that both are initiates of the
secret Yale society, “Skull & Bones”. 

McCallum is a lawyer & Rhodes
Scholar, previously responsible for defending the White House in the Cheney
Energy Task Force / Enron legal proceedings; heading-up the initial Valerie
Plame investigation on behalf of former US Attorney-General, John Ashcroft,
& defending the Bush administration’s right to prevent news organisations
from accessing information about terrorist suspects held by the US. 

He was also responsible for the
US government’s US$130 billion anti-racketeering prosecution launched against
the tobacco industry. Members of the anti-smoking lobby & health
professionals were deeply suspicious of McCallum’s involvement in the suit,
given that he formerly represented tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds when in private
practice. Their concerns proved to be well founded when McCallum ordered the
size of the government’s suit to be reduced to US$10 billion. 

Given the strength of Australia’s
relationship with the US, it would be easy to assume that life for the incoming
Ambassador, a Bush administration “insider”, would not be particularly
challenging. 

Except, of course, for small
matters such as Australia’s ban on the importation of US beef & beef
products, in place since an incident of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
was reported in December 2003.  

Following the BSE incident, many
countries, including Australia, Japan, South Korea,
Taiwan, Malaysia & Singapore announced bans on the importation of US beef
& beef products.  

For its
part, the US has done little in subsequent years to address the effective
regulation of its beef industry, choosing instead to pursue a watering-down of
international trade regulations / standards, whilst applying diplomatic
pressure to have the bans dropped. 

In the
above context, the Australian government initiated a Cabinet level review of
our US beef import restrictions in late 2005, with rumours at the time
suggesting that the restrictions might be relaxed or dropped altogether (see
background piece "A Real Weapon Of
Mass Destruction", Your democracy, October 6, 2005). 

Whilst the federal Cabinet review
was underway, the Bush administration continued to place enormous diplomatic
pressure on both Japan & Korea to lift or ease their bans on US beef &
beef products, even going so far as to threaten Japan with trade sanctions if
it refused. 

Needless to say, whilst
Australia’s bans remained in place, US diplomatic pressure on Japan ultimately
paid off, with the ban on imports of US beef & beef products being lifted
late last year. But the US reprieve was short-lived & the bans were quickly
reinstated in January of this year, after imports of veal cuts were found to
contain backbone material. 

Last week, US Agriculture
Secretary, Mike Johanns, sat down with Japanese officials at a trade conference
in London, once again intent on having the US beef import restrictions lifted. 

In the event that Japan bowed to
US pressure, it was expected that Korea & other countries with bans in
place, including Australia, would quickly come under pressure to do likewise. 

As luck would have it, the US /
Japanese trade talks in London were wrecked at the outset by a fresh FDA
announcement that a new incident of BSE had been detected in Alabama. As a
result, the Japanese bans, along with those applied by other countries,
including Australia, remain steadfastly in place. 

Whilst Australian growers doubtless breathed a sigh of
relief on hearing this latest news from the US, the fact remains that the Bush
administration will not resile from its attempts to have the import bans
dropped. 

Indeed, only last week, Terry
Stokes, Chief Executive Officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
said: “evidence that the prevalence of this disease in the United States is
extremely low. The bottom line for consumers remains
the same. Your beef is safe." ("Third
Mad Cow Case In US Raises Questions About Testing", The Christian
Science Monitor, March 15, 2006) 

Today, Australia’s relationship
with the US has never appeared stronger, with the exception of an occasional
misunderstanding over defence procurement issues. 

In the face of the AWB / UN
Oil-For-Food revelations, the US has remained curiously quiet & has
politely not sought to add to the Howard government’s serious international
public embarrassment over the ongoing scandal. 

On Australia’s part, John Howard
was quick to inform US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, last week that he
was “pleased” with the new US / India nuclear co-operation agreement & that
his government was even prepared to consider reversing its policy of not
supplying uranium to countries who are not signatories to the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty, so we could supply our yellowcake to India. 

All this in spite of the fact
that, under the co-operation agreement, India will be permitted to keep eight
of its 22 reactors under wraps as secret military sites, whilst remaining free
to decide whether it will open any of its new, weapons-friendly,
"fast-breeder" reactors to inspection as civil sites, or to classify
them as exempt secret military installations. 

No concerns were expressed by the
Howard government over the impact of the agreement on stability in our region:
in particular between India & Pakistan. No concerns were expressed over
further nuclear proliferation outside the framework of the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty. No concerns were voiced over our relationship with
China. 

And, in the background, our
unswerving support of the US in the face of the disaster that has become Iraq
continues to serve us in good stead – at least with the Bush administration; a
position made easier to maintain by the ineffectiveness of the Labor
opposition, a complacent citizenry & the absence of casualties. 

But in spite of the fact that
things appear to be going so well, the beef issue may ultimately prove to be
more difficult for the government to successfully manage than any of the other
issues at hand in our relationship with the US. 

It will not be long before the US
is back on Japan’s doorstep with fresh demands that it drop its import bans.
Other countries will feel compelled to quickly fall into line. 

For Australia, this issue could
significantly test the real strength of our relationship with the US for the
first time in many years. 

The Howard government will have
to decide whether it is willing to compromise our historical high standards of
quarantine protection & food safety standards, in order to drop the current
bans on US beef & beef product imports, or, if it’s not prepared to do
that, work out how it will successfully resist US pressure to do so. 

When vitally important Australian
beef export markets, such as Japan (currently generating A$1.8 billion in
export sales for Australia), are forced to drop their import bans on US beef
& beef products, as they will inevitably have to, our government will be
expected to find ways to secure & protect our existing interests by
effectively managing our bilateral trading relationships with those countries,
in the face of new & vigorous US competition. 

In his welcoming remarks to US Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice, last week, our Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said: “So
I would just say in a overall sense it won't surprise any of you to hear me say
that the relationship between the Howard & Bush administrations is a very
close relationship. We work together as, of course, allies. We work together as
a bit more than that. We work together as friends & people who share many
common perspectives both in the region & beyond the region around the world
& we work together very hard on trying to achieve an agenda that both of us
very passionately believe in & that it's an agenda to see greater not just
peace but greater freedom & democracy in many different parts of the
world.” 

Notwithstanding the strength & warmth of our
relationship with the Bush administration, as reflected in Downer’s remarks,
there can be no doubt that the US will vigorously pursue its interests,
including the removal of beef import restrictions, & that the “Bonesman”
would seem more than adequately qualified to pursue that task.