Australian farmers are calling on the federal government to walk away from a proposed trade deal with the European Union, claiming the current offer would send the farm sector "backwards".
Key points:
- The National Farmers Federation president said she could not see any winners for Australian agriculture in the current proposal
- Farmers fear the deal would impose tough trading restrictions, including around naming rights of some produce
- Australia's trade minister said he would not sign a deal that was bad for the country
The European Union is Australia's third-largest trading partner, with a two-way trade valued at close to $100 billion in 2021-22.
Despite more than five years of negotiations on a potential trade agreement, National Farmers' Federation president Fiona Simson said the current offer on the table is a dud.
"What we're seeing at the moment is a bad deal for every sector in Australian agriculture, and that's very unusual to see it being a dud deal across the board," Ms Simson said.
"At the moment, the offer on the table would actually put us at a significant disadvantage to farmers in countries like Canada and New Zealand or South America, it would not be commercially meaningful for Australian agriculture for nearly any commodity. And in actual fact, it would send some of our commodities backwards," Ms Simson said.
Ms Simson, who will this week step down, having led the National Farmers' Federation for seven years, said she could not recall such a poor deal for farmers.
"Normally in a trade deal there's winners and losers, it's really hard to see that there are any winners at all in this particular deal for Australian agriculture," Ms Simson said.
Trade Minister Don Farrell is expected to meet with European negotiators on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Osaka later this month.
Ms Simson urged the minister to "keep his pen in his pocket and walk away" if the deal didn't offer Australian farmers better conditions.
Farmers fear the trade deal would impose tough trading restrictions, including restricting the naming rights of produce like feta and prosecco, and setting impractical farming requirements.
"We've been very honest and open with the Europeans about our sustainability frameworks that we have here in Australia but we have to understand that they're very different to the European situation, our production regimes are very different …. we do not want to have European systems imposed on us that make no sense at all to the Australian environment," Ms Simson said.
Australian sheep meat exporter Roger Fletcher said the EU trade deal presented a huge challenge to both government and industry.
"I think the government's trying very hard on it and we're working with them to try and get an outcome. But there's 450 million people in in Europe and we buy more foodstuffs imports into Australia than we export … they're fighting very hard." Mr Fletcher said.
"It would be a great help to the sheep industry if we could lift exports into Europe and it's a battle right on that this minute."
In a statement, Mr Farrell said he would not sign up to a deal that was bad for Australia.
"I have made it clear that Australia wants a trade agreement with the European Union – but not at any cost," the trade minister said.
"Any deal must include practical benefits for Australian businesses, including improved market access for our farmers and producers."
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2023-10-22 17:57:15Z
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