Australia prepared to walk away from EU FTA over dispute on geographical indicators for agricultural products

Australia has put a reasonable offer on the table but is prepared to walk away from a free trade agreement with the European Union if a resolution to disputes around agricultural products cannot be reached, Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt says.

Trade talks with the EU have reached a “difficult stage” after months of negotiations, with Mr Watts warning the EU — which has a population of more than 450 million and a GDP of $20 trillion — could miss out on Australian products if an agreement is not reached.

With agriculture emerging as a sticking point despite multiple rounds of negotiations, Mr Watt reiterated the Australian Government wouldn’t sign the FTA unless it guaranteed good returns for Australian farmers.

“There’s a reason the former government didn’t finish a free trade agreement with the EU — it’s because it’s probably the hardest one to reach,” Mr Watt said on Monday.

He described the EU’s market as “heavily protected” and one that subsidised its farming industry which he said made it difficult to balance with Australia’s “highly efficient, non-subsidised” agricultural sector.

“But as I said last week, and (Trade Minister) Don Farrell has said, we’re not going to do a deal just for the sake of it,” Mr Watt said.

“We want to see good market access for our producers so that they can get more value and more exports and more wealth for our country.”

Senator Watt said some European countries were struggling with depressed produce prices because of the ongoing war in Ukraine and this was also making the EU more reluctant to sign a deal with Australia.

He said Australia was not afraid to lose the deal if it couldn’t get the kind of market access it was seeking.

“We’re not going to do a deal just for the sake of doing a deal,” Mr Watt told ABC Radio.

“It’s got to be in Australia’s interests as well as being in the EU’s interests. We still think that that is possible to do that.

“There is a lot at stake because, of course, it’s important that we do keep opening new and expanded markets for our agricultural producers in Australia, let alone the other goods that we want to export to the EU.”

Mr Farrell spent two days in Brussels last week discussing the trade deal with his counterpart, with the pair agreeing to continue talks with hopes to land the deal by the end of June.

The EU has been pushing for geographic indicators, which would stop Australian producers from using names such as parmesan, feta or prosecco to label products.

Australia has said the indicators issue is not on the table, leading to a breakdown in talks.

While trade talks were set to be paused with the EU after the impasse, Mr Watt said an agreement had been reached to continue negotiations.

He said Australia was being sensible in calling for geographic indicators not to be used.

“What we’re asking for is perfectly reasonable, especially when you compare it to what other countries have been able to negotiate with the EU,” he told media last week.

“It’s an emotional issue for Australian producers because we’ve had a lot of migration post World War II from Europe to Australia that has seen our producers bring their own products from their home countries and make them here.”

Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said if the deal struck was bad for Australia, then the Government shouldn’t “blink and cave in”.

“This was always going to be a tough negotiation given our market access ambitions,” Mr Hogan said.

“The government must not compromise on geographical indicators for products such as prosecco, parmesan, and feta.”