A trade deal with the European Union remains a way off as the Australian government pushes back on the latest offer.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt says the terms put on the table by the EU are “just not good enough.”
He said Australia was not asking for anything unreasonable and its demands aligned with agreements brokered between the EU and other countries.
“But unfortunately, the EU hasn’t been prepared to come to the party at the moment,” he told ABC News on Sunday.
The minister had been meeting with EU officials ahead of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation conference in Rome.
The federal government has been working on a free trade agreement with the EU for around five years that would give Australian producers greater access to a market of more than 450 million people.
But negotiations have broken down over the conditions attached to a range of agricultural commodities, including beef, sheep, sugar, and dairy products.
The agriculture minister said the latest round of meetings had allowed the government to reiterate its position.
“A lot of the European agriculture ministers were of the view that the deal was nearly done and that Australia was quite happy with what was being offered,” he said.
“So it’s obviously been very useful to make clear that that’s not the case.”
While the trade and agriculture ministers remain determined to reach an agreement, the government has said it will walk away if a deal cannot be reached that’s in Australia’s best interests.
“We think that there are real benefits for both Australia and the EU,” Watt said.
“But we do need to see the EU offer to Australia in terms of agricultural inputs to be much higher than what they’ve got on the table at the moment.”
While the minister said Australia had a strong preference to open up the EU market–which was currently very restricted to Australian agriculture products and other goods and services, he emphasised that the deal must be in the country’s national interest.
“We’re not going to do a deal just for the sake of doing a deal. It’s got to be in Australia’s interests as well as being in EU’s interests,” Watt said.
“If we can’t get the kind of market access that we’re seeking, then it’s not in our interest to do that deal.”
Trade Minister Don Farrell also agreed that Australia would not back down on the issue of geographical indications, a type of trademark that establishes intellectual property rights for specific products whose qualities are linked to the production region.
“If the Europeans play too hard, then we won’t have an agreement,” he said.
“It’s not that we don’t have other options, but … that’s a big, relatively wealthy community, so it’s an important one to get.”
