Brussels will need to make a “better offer” to Australia’s beef and sheep farmers if it wants to close out a trade deal with Canberra, the country’s trade minister has warned.
Don Farrell told the Financial Times that despite improved diplomatic mood-music in Brussels around the prospects for a deal, it would need to be backed by concessions on agricultural access from Europe.
“We want a better offer than what we’ve had so far. And I know that’s hard for the Europeans. But, you know, we have rejected their two previous offers. We want to see a bit of goodwill, and that means getting a better offer,” he said.
Talks between the two sides broke down in October 2023 in spectacular fashion after Farrell walked away from what the EU Commission believed were to be final talks in Osaka, Japan.
Both sides have talked up the chances of striking a fresh agreement after the Labor party government of Anthony Albanese was re-elected in early May. Reopening talks over a trade deal with the EU was one of the priorities highlighted by Labor during the election campaign in response to US tariffs on Australian imports, including steel and aluminium.
Farrell was speaking after a meeting with the EU’s trade commissioner on the sidelines of the OECD conference in Paris, describing Maroš Šefčovič warmly as “a gregarious sort of fellow” with whom he could do business.
Šefčovič also struck an upbeat tone with reporters after the meeting, saying that Brussels believed “we can achieve substantial progress this year”.
A team of Australian negotiators went on from Paris to Brussels on Wednesday night to continue technical talks.
However, while acknowledging that the “world had changed” for global trade since Donald Trump had returned to the White House, Farrell said that the issues around agricultural market access remained unresolved.
“Europeans say, ‘look, you know, our farmers don’t like us giving access to Australian beef and lamb producers’. But our farmers say, ‘well, hang on a moment, we have to have greater access and the EU has given generous benefits to other countries. And we want greater access’,” he said.
Previously the EU had offered an annual beef quota of 24,000 tonnes, but Australia wanted about 40,000 tonnes, plus far more sheep meat. Australia currently has a guaranteed quota of 3,389 tonnes of beef that it can export to Europe annually, on which it pays a tariff of 20 per cent.
Other sensitive points are an EU demand that Australian producers stop using EU-protected names for food products, such as feta and prosecco. Australian negotiators have suggested a compromise to clearly mark such goods as being made in Australia.
Albanese, speaking in Rome last month when he met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU should be “proud” that European migrants had travelled to Australia and achieved success with such heritage items. “The idea that you still produce feta, but you call it something else, it doesn’t change what it is,” he said.
Brussels also wants to ensure its companies will not pay more for raw materials than domestic buyers in Australia.
Farrell said there was renewed goodwill but that a deal would only be reached through compromise on both sides, which he indicated was still some way off.
“We have made substantial progress on lots of the issues. But the really, really difficult issues are still outstanding. I don’t want to give you the impression that, you know, they have in any way been resolved, because they haven’t,” he said.