EU and Australia have started the FTA negotiations
On June 18, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian Minister for Trade, Hon Steven Ciobo, and the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom have officially launched the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (A-EU FTA) negotiation process and the event is seen as positive by the Australian red meat industry.
Jason Strong, Chair of the Australia-EU Red Meat Market Access Taskforce, expects that the final form of the agreement to consolidate the presence of beef and sheepmeat producers in the EU market.
"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", explained Strong the importance of the moment.
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 a meagre 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,” Mr Strong said.
“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", added the head of the Australia-EU Red Meat Market Access Taskforce.
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