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Key points
- Australian farmers have urged Trade Minister Don Farrell to walk away from the EU deal if it’s like the one signed overnight with New Zealand.
- New Zealand PM Chris Hipkins inked the agreement in a ceremony alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
- New Zealand says the deal will eventually allow its producers tariff-free access for 97 per cent of goods.
- However, there are limits on New Zealand exports of key goods like beef, butter and cheese to the EU.
- Farrell is resuming the EU trade negotiations, which began around the same time as New Zealand’s.
Brussels: Australian farmers are urging Trade Minister Don Farrell to walk away from negotiations with the EU if the bloc offers a deal akin to the one signed with New Zealand in Brussels overnight.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins inked the agreement in a ceremony alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday (local time).
European C.ommission President Ursula von der Leyen.Credit: AP
New Zealand says the deal will eventually allow its producers tariff-free access for 97 per cent of goods.
But the EU retained the use of quotas for some Kiwi dairy products, beef and sheep meat, ethanol and sweetcorn.
It said that New Zealand would not be allowed to export more than 10,000 tonnes or 0.15 per cent of the amount of beef the EU consumes tariff-free.
Tony Mahar, CEO National Farmers Federation.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The EU said that for butter, cheeses and milk powder, New Zealand could only export 0.71 per cent, 0.27 per cent and 1.30 per cent of the EU’s total consumption respectively before tariffs kicked in, to make them more expensive against EU-produced goods.
Asked what Australia should do if presented with similar limited access to the single market, which has around 446 million consumers, Tony Mahar, CEO of the National Farmers Federation was blunt.
“We’d say walk away, thanks but no thanks,” he said, in an interview. “If it doesn’t mean commercial dollars then we’re not interested.”
Farrell has broken his European holiday to resume trade negotiations, which began around the same time as New Zealand’s, and have reached their most tense stage, with the EU refusing to grant Australia commercially meaningful market access to its sheepmeat, beef, dairy and sugar markets.
Farrell will meet Mahar on Monday morning before the resumption of talks.
“I’m here to back the trade minister to make sure he gets a commercially meaningful deal for Australian farmers – one that’s well over and above what the EU has agreed to with New Zealand,” Mahar said.
At the signing ceremony, von der Leyen hailed the deal as “trailblazing” because it included commitments to the Paris climate agreement. Two separate agreements also grant New Zealand access to the EU’s science and research program Horizon as well as the international crime-fighting organisation Europol.
The President said it would boost trade with New Zealand by as much as 30 per cent and the value of EU exports to New Zealand by as much as €4.5 billion.
New Zealand said their exports could grow by as much as $1.8 billion per year with duties removed on 97 per cent of Kiwi goods after seven years. The deal is expected to come into force in the first half of next year.
Prime Minister of New Zealand Chris Hipkins.Credit: AP
Hipkins said: “New Zealand exporters will get better access to the European Union than they have ever had before.”
But Sirma Karapeeva, chief executive of the Meat Industry Association (MIA) has previously said the government had agreed to small quotas that would constrain New Zealand’s agricultural companies ability to export to the EU.
“This agreement is not consistent with our expectations and the promise for an ambitious, high quality trade deal,” Karapeeva said.
Speaking before the signing ceremony, which he also attended, New Zealand’s Trade Minister Damien O’Connor was forced to defend the quality of the deal and suggested that the country’s small size meant it had less bargaining power than Australia.
“We went right to the wire, pushing them as far as we could,” O’Connor told 1News.
“We are a market of five million people. Australia is considerably larger.
“And so every country will negotiate with the coin that it has, and we do not have a lot, but we got a pretty good deal.”
The EU’s statement praised New Zealand for protecting more than 2000 EU agri-food names, known as Geographical Indications. Examples include champagne, feta and prosecco.
Prosecco is a product covered by Geographical Indications.Credit: maurese
“This matters because we share a common understanding that Geographical Indications are rural intellectual property, and therefore important drivers of rural prosperity and job creation,” the EU said in its statement.
Geographical Indications have been one of the major hurdles blocking progress on an Australia-EU trade deal with Australia insisting that the country’s post-war migrants who flocked emigrated deserve to have their local produce recognised in the same way the EU treats produce made by their ancestors.
The Opposition’s trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said Geographical Indications must be a red line.
“There must be no compromise on the EU’s demands on Geographical Indications,” Hogan said.
“It must not include a long list of EU ‘conditions’ on Australian exports such as restricting beef exports to grass-fed beef only.
“Simply put, unless the EU makes a vastly improved offer from its previously only weeks old attempt, it is not a trade deal worth doing.”
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