Trade Minister Don Farrell is “very pleased that more than ten years of tough negotiations” have resulted in a free-trade agreement with the European Union.
“This will be great for jobs in Australia. Our national economy will expand by 10 billion dollars, and that will create thousands of new jobs in Australia,” Farrell told Neos Kosmos just as the ink had dried on the deal.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today signed the much-debated deal in Canberra, marking an end to almost a decade of intermittent negotiations.
Farrell has been dogged in his pursuit of a free-trade deal with the EU over many years. Even though some producers view it as imperfect, the agreement will open Australian agricultural exports—as well as sectors such as critical minerals and defence technology—to a mega-Euro market.
“There are 450 million consumers in Europe – it is a big market, worth $310 trillion worth of GDP – and it is an important market for us to get in,” Farrell told Neos Kosmos.
“This will be great for jobs in Australia. Our national economy will expand by 10 billion dollars, and that will create thousands of new jobs in Australia,” Trade Minister Don Farrell
Farrell said the EU is open to “our wonderful Australian beef, our wonderful wine, sugar, rice, plus our critical minerals, and our defence technology”.
Australian consumers will also benefit from cheaper European-made wine, cheese, cars and fashion.
Australia will remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which affects carmakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, along with producers of goods such as fashion, food and drink.
In exchange, the EU will allow expanded imports of Australian products, including beef and lamb.
The deal is a “defining moment,” said Albanese, in Australia’s relationship with the European Union.
“This is a significant moment for our nation as we secure an agreement with the world’s second-largest economy,” he told reporters in Canberra.
The long-running dispute over the use of product names like prosecco and feta — which European winemakers and cheesemakers wanted exclusive access to — has been addressed.
Australian producers will be allowed to continue calling the sparkling wine “prosecco” for domestic sales, but the term will be phased out over 10 years for foreign exports.
Australian wine producers celebrated the removal of tariffs for exports to the EU. The industry may deliver $14.5 million in tariff savings each year. Australian producers will be able to keep using the name Parmesan, but not Feta, which will be grandfathered out.
Not all exporters were as sanguine.
Australian farmers will be able to export an additional 30,600 tonnes of beef and 25,000 tonnes of lamb, short of the 50,000 tonnes of beef and 67,000 tonnes of lamb the industry wanted. And significantly less than other countries, which are also engaged in free trade agreements with the EU.
Australia EU Red Meat Market Access Taskforce chair Andrew McDonald told the ABC that it was an “outrageous discrepancy”.
“To land a deal so far below what other suppliers have secured is genuinely bewildering,” he said.
Cattle Australia chair Garry Edwards accused the government of leading “an apparently disingenuous trade negotiation”.
“The quantities agreed are pathetic, with headline trivial volumes not reached for 10 years,” he said.
“At the same time Australia is inundated with massive volumes of tariff-free EU meat, protein and dairy products.”
Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett said the deal could result in a flood of cheap imports.
“We have a tariff to hold back the tsunami of cheese from Europe. Now that’s going to disappear,” he said.
Australia already imports a significant amount of European dairy products.
