TENSIONS are building inside the federal Coalition over the Nationals' habit of announcing unilateral policy positions on issues including coal seam gas and free trade.
Liberal frontbenchers and MPs were angry yesterday when the Nationals leader, Warren Truss, and the Senate leader, Barnaby Joyce, ridiculed a free-trade pact entered into by Australia, the US and other nations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Hawaii.
At the weekend, nine nations agreed to negotiate eradicating tariffs and other trade barriers by the end of next year under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, seen by many as a more realistic aim than the Doha global free trade initiative.
Sydney Morning Herald
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