Federal Trade Minister Don Farrell, on the again of a multi-country diplomacy journey earlier this month, needs to safe a “fair deal” with the European Union “early next year”.
“That’s a hard one. It’s a particularly hard one for France; they’ve got a highly protected agricultural industry,” Farrell admitted.
“But look, they have made concessions to other countries. They’ve made concessions to New Zealand, for instance, in terms of sheep meat. They’ve made concessions to Canada in respect of beef.
“The factor that now we have, specifically, that the Europeans need is important minerals.”
Rather than buckling on naming rule changes the EU wants, which could impact Australian producers of feta and parmesan cheese and prosecco, Farrell sees those minerals, essential to much modern technology, as the way forward.
“I believe there is a deal to be performed with the Europeans to get entry for our agricultural markets, in change for us offering entry to our important minerals,” he said.
“At the second, the Europeans are virtually completely reliant on the Chinese marketplace for that. We supply another possibility for them and we expect that that places us into an excellent negotiating place.”
Farrell said as a “nice migrant nation”, Australia’s European descendants didn’t want to lose their “very robust emotional connection” to the products they’d brought with them from their homelands.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis may get the chance to see just how strong that connection is next year.
Farrell said he’d recently invited the executive vice-president to visit Australia after February’s talks to sort out any issues “nose to nose”.
“I’ll have to offer some consideration to what meals he will get,” the minister said when asked if prosecco, feta, parmesan, beef and lamb would be on the menu.
“But my guess is he understands what great produce when it comes to meals and wine Australia produces and he’ll be eager to have that have fairly unbiased of something I would supply.”
Farrell said a deal was the “good answer” for Europe as both sides looked to diversify away from China and didn’t bite when asked if Australia would withhold critical minerals if its negotiators couldn’t get a good enough agreement.
“I’m not issuing threats to the Europeans,” he said.
“We assume that in a mature and wise method, that we will kind out our variations.”
But trade expert Dmitry Grozoubinski said Australia’s efforts to sell as much tariff-free beef and lamb into an EU with a “protectionist” approach on agriculture was the key sticking point.
“I believe the nuclear submarine tiff made it each politically simpler for the French to face their floor on a few of these protectionist questions, and concurrently made it tougher for Macron, to place his neck on the market and develop the political capital by making concessions if he have been so inclined,” he told 9News.com.au earlier this year.
“So I do not assume that was useful in that regard however the underlying issues or the underlying disagreement was nonetheless basically there.
“Australia is a very large and very efficient agricultural producer and exporter. The European Union is probably the only market, the only major market left in the world with which Australia does not have a free trade agreement, apart from India.”
Grozoubinski labored for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a commerce negotiator for a number of years till 2017 and now runs commerce consultancy ClarifyTrade in Geneva.
If the minister needs Australian farmers to have the ability to radically improve the quantity of beef and lamb they ship to Europe, he hopes DFAT negotiators have “some sort of massive trump card” they’ll play.
“Historically because it is a liberalised and open economy, that’s also quite far away, and doesn’t have that many consumers, even though they are sort of quite wealthy consumers, Australia has somewhat struggled to come up with hugely attractive morsels on its side of the ledger,” he stated.
“And so in order to get this across the line, it would likely mean Australia moderating its ambition in terms of being willing to accept less access than it would like or it feels comfortable with, or a sort of change of politics within the EU.”
As it stands, New Zealand, with its free commerce deal and a few historic benefits, can promote many instances extra beef, and significantly lamb, into the EU than Australia.
Farrell would not be drawn on whether or not something lower than Aukland’s entry may very well be thought-about a hit however declared he wished a “honest deal”.
“Look, there are swings and roundabouts in that whole process,” he stated.
“We want meaningful access to the European markets in terms of our agricultural products.
“We do assume that we have got extra to supply in that course of than the New Zealanders.
“And I guess what we’d say is we want a fair go from the European Union in terms of our final agreement.”
One factor appears doubtless. Australia cannot count on the raging success of its UK commerce deal, which supplies Aussie lamb, beef and dairy producers limitless entry inside 5 to 10 years.
Grozoubinski stated EU leaders merely did not have as a lot to achieve as then-trade minister Liz Truss did as a part of a post-Brexit authorities determined to announce commerce wins.
“Two things: One, the EU is not committed to the same kind of libertarian approach to trade policy as the UK was under … Liz Truss,” he stated.
“And second, Australia simply doesn’t have the kind of leverage that the Brexit political moment gifted negotiators who I’m sure did a phenomenal job. By the way, I don’t want to take anything away from them.
“But it all the time actually, actually helps if the minister on the opposite facet is determined to announce a deal and determined to not announce the deal is not occurring.”
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A European Commission spokesperson told 9News.com.au the bloc was keen to conclude negotiations for the European spring.
They said negotiators would “redouble their efforts to advance rapidly and handle all of the excellent points” ahead of more “good progress” in February in Canberra.
