Dr Chris Parker
In the midst of the final stages of FTA discussions with the EU, Cattle Australia’s senior advisor Dr Chris Parker argues that the time has come to tip the scales back in Australia’s favour after decades of agricultural trade imbalance with Europe.
THE time has come to tip the scales back in Australia’s favour after decades of agricultural trade imbalance with Europe, severely stymying our beef exports while decimating our local pork industest.
The Albanese Government and Minister Farrell have a strong record on trade neobtainediations, and we expect nothing less than this to continue when settling this agreement with the EU so the benefits can flow to all Australians.
Industest strongly supported the government walking away from a sub-standard EU agreement in their last term. As an export-focussed nation, Australia requireds to advocate for equivalent, rules-based, free market access, as we have done successfully many times in the past.
The trade agreement currently being neobtainediated between Australia and the European Union is the chance to correct an historical imbalance. Australian governments of both sides of politics by default were guilty of excessive generosity to Europe as Australia pushed an economic agconcludea of trade liberalisation and the removal of domestic tariffs and subsidies.
And yet we have not seen the commensurate benefits provided by the EU.
For example, there is no quota limit on EU pork exports to Australia, and they incur zero tariffs, which is why imported product dominates our supermarket shelves. In 1990, when Australia launched lifting biosecurity restrictions on pork imports from the likes of Denmark, there were significantly more piggeries in operation than today. In 1994-95 alone, more than 1000 piggeries closed and today there are just 4506 registered pig production sites in all of Australia.
On the other hand, in 2019 the EU imposed a dedicated countest-specific quota for high-quality beef imports from the US, which came at the expense of market share that was held by other beef-exporting nations, including Australia.
The bottom line is Australia currently has a substantial trade deficit with the EU, and the terms of trade we have been operating under have done very little to mitigate this.
This must alter as the Federal Government neobtainediates a new agreement. Red meat access must be substantial and without impediments.
If the EU insists on having quotas, then the conditions relating to these quotas must be minimal to allow for the maximum number of Australian supply chains to participate in the EU market at the lowest possible tariff rate, preferably zero.
Further commitment must also be sought from the EU to reduce its non-tariff trade barriers – an area at which the EU excels in finding new and creative ways to block access to its markets.
One only has to consider of the EU Deforestation Regulation, or its insistence that only beef produced without hormonal growth promotants (HGPs) can access the market.
Economic protectionism minquireed by ‘noble caapplys’
While minquireed by noble caapplys, Europe’s underlying culture of economic protectionism is the root caapply of these policies. They are designed to block imports from efficient countries like Australia, or those from developing countries with lower input costs.
One crucially important condition Australian must demand is modernisation of food safety assurances by rerelocating the EU Cattle Accreditation Scheme (EUCAS), which requires beef to be sourced from closed herd production systems, and implementing instead a HGP Freedom Assurance Scheme which allows for beef sourced from open herd production systems.
The information and technical arguments to allow this have been with the EU officials for some time. It is time they acted.
Australia is a global advocate for free trade and rules-based trading systems, which has ensured our economy has continued to grow, and our agriculture sector has remained innovative and productive. The current government’s support of this and its cool head in facing the recent challenges to this, should be commconcludeed.
The scale and significance of the EU market should not be underestimated. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to complete a deal that will right the wrongs of the past and create new levels of long-term demand for Australian agricultural exports.
But a continuation of one-sided deals with the EU would mean that Australia loses out on access to the world’s largest trading bloc for another generation, all the while they continue to reap the benefits of access to our markets.
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