Accelerate Magazine of the AHK Australien: Open Borders and Free Trade Negotiations Progress

Governmental Affairs

Open Borders and Free Trade Negotiations Progress

By Dr Michael Zettinig, German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce

The full opening of Australia’s borders to business travellers plus progress in the FTA negotiations are very positive developments, but challenges remain.

Compared with the last edition of Accelerate, the world has changed dramatically – both in positive as well as negative ways.

On the positive side, there is the full reopening of Australia’s external and domestic borders for all travellers, including short-term business visitors. We have already had the pleasure of welcoming several German visitors keen to start or extend business operations in Australia through our German- Australian Chamber offices in Sydney and Melbourne. This development also has a positive impact on staff retention as visits to German expats are again easily possible. As you can see, the increased flight prices indicate the demand for travel between Australia and Germany is obviously there.

I am also personally happy about the development as this means that the process to get travel exemptions for essential travel by companies in the German-Australian business community is no longer necessary as the process was sometimes slow and required a lot of documentation with uncertain outcomes.

As we are seeing with our member events and the German-Australian Growth Summit, members of the German-Australian business community are happy to come together in person again and follow a careful “living with Covid” approach.

For this reason, we have also decided to organise our first international Chamber delegation since 2019 in November 2022. The Australian delegation will go to Singapore from 12- 15 November to participate in the Asia- Pacific Conference of German Business (APK), the largest CEO-level conference of German business in the region. The conference will discuss key international topics such as sustainability, supply chains and geopolitical developments. Confirmed speakers include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Dr Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Please contact me to express interest in participating in the Delegation, and I will provide you with the details.

Another positive development is the continuation of the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations. The 12 th formal negotiation round took place in February, and both sides reported progress in several fields afterwards. However, the next formal negotiation round is not scheduled to take place before September; therefore, a conclusion of the negotiations in the calendar year 2022 is very unlikely. I think a conclusion in the first half of 2023 is well possible and would be a very positive development. Please read the short Australian report about the 12th negotiation round here.

In regard to Australia’s federal election, the Chamber is following its permanent tradition to work with every Australian government and to engage both sides of politics during our Canberra Delegations; therefore, the Chamber is never supporting any particular party during election campaigns. The next Canberra Delegation is planned for the second half of 2022. Please contact me for details and keep an eye out for the announcements in our AHK Insider newsletter.

Besides those positive developments, there are also significant negative policy/geopolitical developments. The most important of those is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting spikes in energy prices and global economic uncertainty. This has also resulted in several institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, downgrading their global growth expectations and could negatively affect on the willingness of German and Australian businesses to invest in new markets. One upside of this development is even greater German and European interest in Australian energy supplies, including LNG and hydrogen. We continue our close engagement with the relevant industry and government stakeholders in the field, including through the German- Australian Energy Partnership and my position as Co-Chair of the German- Australian Hydrogen Working Group.

Another negative development is the ongoing global disruption and price increases of supply chains. This has multiple reasons, including China’s lockdowns and increased demand for goods. Please get in touch with our logistics members to discuss your individual needs. In regards to critical minerals and minerals for batteries, we are seeing increased interest in reliable Australian supply from the German industry. We are supporting this through our initiatives, including the Competence Centre for Mining & Resources (CCMR).

The Chamber continues to work closely with the German and Australian governments to address issues and topics of relevance for the bilateral business community. Both governments are planning to hold another German-Australian Joint Economic Committee meeting in the second half of the year. This initiative is a good opportunity to directly address business issues with both governments.

Please get in touch if you have questions or feedback about the FTA update, the Singapore APK Delegation, the Joint Economic Committee or our other Governmental Affairs activities. We regularly host events to update our members on key political changes. Keep an eye out at our Events Calendar or contact Dr Michael Zettinig for updates.

At a recent event on the EU-AU Free Trade Agreement held in Melbourne, partnering with Global Victoria. We were pleased to have had Chief Negotiator for Australia, Alison Burrows, as a key speaker at the event.

AU-EU FTA Panel Discussion in Melbourne

Event held in partnership with Global Victoria, pwc and the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce