The Prime Minister must not trade away vital health and social policies in her enthusiasm to cooperate with the US government in Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement talks underway in Hawaii, the Australian Greens said today.

"The United States, which is driving this agenda, is coming back to get what it didn't succeed in getting through the US-Australia free trade agreement," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

The Gillard government's "rethink" on free trade is long overdue and the focus needs to shift in the short term to the government's headlong rush into the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, Australian Greens Deputy Leader Christine Milne said today.