Australian red meat promoted in Brussels
Meat and Livestock Australia's mission in Brussels have organized its annual barbeque party in order to promote the country's red meat products. This year's event was focused on the trade talks recently open between the Australia and EU. This year’s BBQ menu was influenced by the old European cuisine and the guests were welcomed with Mediterranean and Spanish tapas flavors, Brasserie style cooking and the traditional English Sunday roast used for inspiration.
MLA Europe international business manager Josh Anderson said the BBQ had become an important fixture on the MLA Europe activity calendar especially this year, given the positive momentum around trade talks.
“The BBQ is not only a showcase of our high-quality red meat that Australia wants to supply to Europe and a celebration of our farmers who produce it but an important event promoting the merits of liberalized trade in Europe to a hugely influential crowd. MLA has worked hard to build this network of contacts in Europe who are in encouragement of greater trade with Australia. The support shown at our event is a true reflection of our industry and government’s ongoing activities in the market,” Josh Anderson said.
The Australian Government estimates that a trade agreement with the EU would open the door to a market of half a billion consumers and a GDP of US$17.3 trillion - making it one of Australia's biggest trade agreements once concluded.
Two-way trade in goods exceeded $68 billion in 2017. Yet while a lucrative market, the EU’s continued protectionist stance towards agricultural imports has restricted Australia’s ability to respond to market demands and these trading conditions have remained unchanged for 40 years.
The EU is Australia's second largest trading partner and third largest export destination and was the country’s largest source of foreign investment in 2017.
The talks were officially opened in June and Australia's red meat industry has high hopes on a trade deal with EU.
For beef, Australia currently has access to a country-specific quota of only 7,150 tonnes, as well as shared access to a 45,000-tonne global grain-fed beef quota - which in combination represent 0.2% of total EU beef consumption. For sheepmeat/goatmeat, Australia’s country-specific quota is currently just 19,186 tonnes or less than 2% of total EU sheepmeat consumption.
"The launch of FTA negotiations with the EU provides a significant opportunity to revisit Australia’s red meat access to the European market for the first time in over forty years. The EU is a major consumer of imported meat - with the European Commission identifying an ongoing requirement for both imported beef and sheepmeat due to deficits in domestic supply. While Australia is ideally positioned to help service this market requirement via dedicated supply chains, our access is limited by the EU’s highly restrictive import regime. Compared with many other countries supplying the EU, Australia experiences disproportionately low volume quotas, high duties within certain quotas and trade prohibitive above-quota tariffs”, mentioned Jason Strong, Chair of the Australia-EU Red Meat Market Access Taskforce.
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