Deputy speaker,
The Government aims to conclude a comprehensive and ambitious trade agreement with the EU as soon as possible.
The Prime Minister brought negotiations back on track during his June visit to Europe.
In Madrid, the Prime Minister and the EU Commission and Council Presidents committed to making progress on the EU FTA.
It was also a key focus of Minister Farrell’s visit to Geneva.
This deal with the EU is critical and we would like to have an agreement by mid-2023.
The latest round of negotiations took place between 17-21 October.
A trade agreement with the EU would help to diversify our trade relationships and expand opportunities for Australian exporters.
This would be a significant free trade agreement.
The EU is a massive high-income market of almost 450 million people with a GDP of around A$23 trillion.
As a bloc, the EU is already our second largest two-way trading partner of goods and services (worth A$74 billion in 2020).
A trade agreement would facilitate greater EU investment in Australia, which supports jobs and economic growth.
Australia is seeking to lock in access for services exporters and create opportunities in sectors of key commercial interest like education, financial, and professional services.
Our negotiators are also aiming to significantly improve market access for Australian agricultural and industrial products.
And we’ll seek to do this by streamlining customs procedures in the deal to improve business confidence.
And importantly, we’ll negotiate hard to make sure that standards and regulations don’t deter trade by creating barriers to getting our goods and services into Europe.
Our main goods exports to the EU are coal, gold, oil seeds and professional, ICT, and education exports in services.
European market access for beef, sheep meat, rice, sugar and dairy would be very good outcomes of Australian producers.
In its EU trade deal signed in June this year, New Zealand secured duty-free access for 163,769 tonnes of sheep meat after seven years of entry into force.
New Zealand also got a better deal on quotas for beef and dairy and secured some NZ$100 million in savings each year.
But Australia’s current lack of preferential access into the EU means our exporters are at a disadvantage compared to many of our biggest competitors like New Zealand.
Many of Australia’s major exports, particularly agriculture, face prohibitively high tariffs.
We also want to create more opportunities for our services exporters and grow investment.
Australian industry and consumers can be confident that we will drive a hard bargain to achieve an overall agreement of benefit to Australia.
An ambitious trade agreement is the best way to improve our access to the EU and rebalance the current trade flows.
The Government is committed to taking ambitious action on climate change and looks forward to exploring new avenues for cooperation on climate and energy through this deal.
A comprehensive and ambitious free trade agreement will strengthen trade and investment links with the EU at a time of great uncertainty globally.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reinforced the value of partnerships with like-minded countries in Europe.
The trade agreement is an opportunity to strengthen our ties and tackle the economic and geopolitical challenges and supply chain disruptions currently facing Europe.
We want to be part of the solution.
And we are part of the solution by donating 30 additional Bushmaster to Ukraine as Deputy Prime Minister Marles announced last month, bringing our total to 90 vehicles.
But ultimately, our negotiations with the EU will only be concluded when we have a good deal that is in our national interest, including by delivering commercially significant, new market access for our agricultural products.
Thanks Deputy Speaker.
