The “rest of the Australian economy” should not be penalised because the EU free trade deal falls short of farmers’ demands, Trade Minister Don Farrell has said as the Nationals move to block the $10bn-a-year agreement.
The deal was finalised in March and scraps tariffs on 98 per cent of Australian exports to the glee of most sectors.
But negotiators failed to secure market access quotas for beef and sheep meat that farmers wanted, with the National Farmers Federation saying “we’d rather no agreement”.
Senator Farrell on Monday conceded the deal is not “everything we wanted” but insisted it is “good for farmers”.
“What the beef industry said to me before I went into these most recent negotiations was, ‘Don, we want $3 billion worth of new trade for beef and lamb’ – I got them $2 billion worth of new trade,” he told ABC’s Radio National.
“Now … I accept that it wasn’t $3 billion, but one section of the Australian economy that doesn’t get everything that they want can’t say to the rest of the Australian economy, ‘Well, because we didn’t get everything we wanted, you’re going to get nothing of what you want.’”
He went on to say that beef exports have doubled to $18bn since 2022.
“And I think I have been looking after the beef industry and I’ll continue to look after them, but my job is to represent the national interest, not just one section of the Australian economy,” Senator Farrell said.
Beef producers wanted market access quotas of 50,000 tonnes but the agreement secured 35,000 tonnes – an eight-fold improvement on current levels.
Sheep meat exports landed at just under 31,000 tonnes, up from 5800 tonnes.
Turmoil in Europe
The Nationals’ calls to renegotiate the agreement come against a backdrop political turmoil in France and Germany – the EU’s two biggest economies.
In France, violent protests have rocked cities in recent days, with President Emmanuel Macron blaming “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups”.
All the while, the far-right is leading the polls ahead of next year’s presidential election, which could leave Canberra with even less wiggle room on agriculture.
It is a similar situation in Germany, where the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany is gaining ground in state-level votes.
“Anybody who thinks there’s any chance of renegotiating this agreement – particularly with what’s going on in France at the moment, what happened a couple of weeks ago in terms of elections in Germany – is kidding themselves,” Senator Farrell said in his interview.
But Nationals leader Matt Canavan dismissed that reasoning as a “weak excuse”.
“I mean, the Trade Minister’s idea that somehow he can’t raise these concerns with his European colleagues because of the stuff going on in Paris – I mean, is this guy serious?” he said, also speaking to Radio National.
“Let’s get in there and get our hands dirty.”
NewsWire revealed this week that The Nationals will try to block the agreement when it arrives in parliament early next year.
But while Senator Canavan is firmly against it, not everyone in the Coalition is on the same page, with moderate Liberals siding with business in backing it.
Peak bodies, including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Australian Industry Group (AiG), have been vocal in their support for the agreement.
“Business supports this deal,” ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said, adding that it “delivers substantial market access benefits for Australian exporters across a very broad range of sectors”.
“It would deliver increases in exports to the EU in the order of billions, growing over time.
“It is absolutely in the national interest.”
He called on “everyone in the parliament to back a deal that has been worked on across the political divide for the better part of a decade”.
“If we lose this opportunity now, we won’t get it back,” Mr McKellar said.