Australian producers to keep prosecco, feta and parmesan as European Union trade deal doomed
Australian producers to keep prosecco, feta and parmesan as European Union trade deal doomed
A massive trade deal with the European Union appears all but doomed after "end game" negotiations between the two sides collapsed before they even began.
@Nath shipping cheese, wine and luxury wanker cars to the other side of the planet should come with a hefty tax.
honestly if there wasn't a AUSFTA style E-3 visa in the deal, it's good if it goes down.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Trade Minister Don Farrell is due to hold face-to-face talks with his EU counterpart in Osaka on Monday but has already told negotiators he will be walking away from the deal — for the second time in three months — because the offer on the table is still not good enough.
But five years after negotiations began, farmers have labelled the existing offer a "dud", arguing it barely improves market access for Australian sugar, red meat and dairy and would impose "conditions" or European-mandated restrictions on local farming practices.
The other major sticking point has been EU demands for Australia to give up naming rights to hundreds of products – including prosecco, parmesan and feta – to protect so-called "geographical indications".
As part of the agreement, the EU has been pushing for greater access to Australia's vast critical minerals, and for the abolition of the $1 billion Luxury Car Tax, which would benefit Australian consumers.
The two sides agreed a trade deal would help both markets diversify away from China, which slapped eye-watering tariffs on Australian imports during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in what was widely viewed as economic coercion.
The Albanese government has been gradually restoring trade ties with Beijing since coming to power and it is hoped the prime minister's upcoming trip to China will see a further relaxation of sanctions.
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I frankly don't care whether they rename drinks and cheeses because Europeans hate that their stuff is inferior to local products. Well, except Feta - the Greek stuff is amazing.
In general, we'll happily keep buying the same brands we already buy and it'll mean diddly squat for sales of imports.
I'm not sure what the real sticking point of a trade deal is, it probably has something to do with politics. I'm not even sure why we want a trade deal - the EU is very far away, and if we're talking food, that's a lot of transport carbon to offset in either direction.
What products are the sides really wanting to trade? Are they after our dirt?
I also noticed the article seemed a little vague regarding ideal goals of an FTA between Australia and EU.
Seems like the EU mostly wanted Australia to agree to their geographical indicator rules (e.g. not allowed to use feta, Prosecco etc names) and for Australia to agree to much more ambitious climate action and sustainability targets.
So that kind of explains why they aren't too fussed about reaching an agreement with Australia (plus Australia upset France by withdrawing from its submarine deal the way it did), whereas Australia had a lot more to gain.
- Reducing or eliminating the current excise levels (7-12%) across industrial goods,
- increasing or eliminating altogether the allowed currently very restrictive quotas of agricultural goods that can be exported to EU, and
- building towards mutual recognition of professional licensing and registration, so workers can more easily move between EU and Australia.
But the EU being almost half a billion people vs our 26 million, we were never going to have very effective leverage I think.
(This link had better details https://www.claytonutz.com/knowledge/2022/july/free-trade-agreement-between-australia-and-the-european-union-back-on-the-table-with-some-caveats)
What products are the sides really wanting to trade? Are they after our dirt?
Seems so. I found this article from DFAT much more informative: https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/negotiations/aeufta/australia-european-union-fta-fact-sheet