The Muster
l TRADE
A cheese by any other name Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell refused to sign a free trade deal with the European Union, leaving farmers relieved, but negotiations are still hanging in the balance. Words SANDRA GODWIN
A
ustralian farmers breathed a collective sigh of relief when Trade Minister Don Farrell declined to sign a free trade deal with the European Union (EU) in October. Back in Australia after trips to Japan, China and the United States, Mr Farrell says an agreement to “continue talking” was the most positive thing to come out of discussions with EU counterparts while he was in Osaka for the G7 Trade Ministers’ meeting. Beforehand, he had warned a deal was not certain, despite more than five years and over a dozen rounds of negotiations. “I have made it very clear Australia will not sign a deal for the sake of it, and I meant it,” he said in a statement. Mr Farrell previously walked away from negotiations at EU headquarters in Brussels in July because of a disagreement over meaningful market access for Australian agriculture, including beef, sheep meat, dairy products, sugar and rice, much of which are subject to tariffs and quotas. Mr Farrell says it was made clear to EU representatives that the offer received in July wouldn’t get the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) over the line, especially when it came to beef and sheep meat quotas. “I had been hopeful that when we met them in Osaka, that we would have received a better offer,” he says. “We needed a significantly better
agricultural offer. And when that didn’t come, I took the view that we hadn’t made sufficient progress, and I couldn’t recommend to the Australian people that we sign the deal.” Another major sticking point continues to be the EU’s insistence on Australia giving up the right to use the names of products that originated from Europe. Known as Geographical Indications (GI), they’re intended to protect against misuse or imitation of the registered name within the EU and in non-EU countries that agree. The EU claims GIs establish intellectual property rights for those products, although some are the names of plant varieties or styles, not places or regions. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website lists 166 foods and 234 beverages the EU seeks to protect as GIs in Australia. But Mr Farrell says he hopes the issue can be solved to the satisfaction of Australian farmers and producers. “We had made it clear all along that for Australian producers who had left Europe postWorld War II, that these names like prosecco, feta, parmesan, weren’t just economic issues,” he says. “They were also cultural issues; they were a way of these Australians keeping a connection with their homeland. And I think at the end of the day that started to sink in with the Europeans.”
“The estimate is that it would cost us $75 million a year in lost revenue, and the compliance burden would be placed on our government, so it would be an additional cost to taxpayers as well.” – PHIL RYAN Bega Valley dairy farmer
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THE FARMER
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024
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