After eight long years of negotiations, the Australian Government has finally secured a trade deal with the European Union. The Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement will see European goods become cheaper for Aussie consumers, while EU tariffs will also be removed on a wide range of Australian imports into the European Union – a market of around 450 million people, and the world’s second largest economy.

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What will be cheaper under the EU free trade agreement?

European wine, spirits, biscuits, chocolates, confectionery, canned goods, cheese and pasta will all become cheaper to buy at the checkout, as will European fashion and footwear. European-manufactured cars will also become less expensive. European-manufactured vehicles and machinery will also be cheaper for farmers and businesses.

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What about food names?

The deal has ensured that Australian producers can continue to use food names such as parmesan, mozzarella, gouda, brie, camembert, kransky, brandy and vodka, as it was successfully argued that these terms have become generic here. 

However, other product names – including Pecorino Romano, fontina, ouzo and sherry vinegar – are no longer permitted to be used here, and will be phased out over five to 10 years. 

Products like feta and Gruyere, on the other hand, came in under a special ‘grandfathering’ clause of the agreement: Australian producers who have been making products by these names for at least five years before the agreement came into effect can continue to produce them under these names, but new producers cannot. This means that Australian feta will slowly be phased out over time. 

The Australian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC) says that the new agreement should be renamed the “Un-Fair Trade Agreement”.

While the deal expands access to heavily subsidised European dairy imports, it fails to secure reciprocal access for Australia’s exports to the EU, says ADIC chair Ben Bennett. 

Bennett further says that by restricting the future use of widely recognised cheese names while also removing one of Australia’s most significant dairy import tariffs on cheese, “We are being asked to give up established commercial freedoms without securing meaningful market access”.

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Less pop and more fizzer for prosecco exporters

Under the new agreement, Australian winemakers can continue to make and sell prosecco domestically, however, they will no longer be able to export Australian prosecco, following a 10-year phase-out period.  

Lee McLean, chief executive of Australian Grape & Wine – Australia’s national association of winegrape and wine producers – says the deal is a “blow” to Aussie producers who currently export prosecco. 

“We continue to maintain that prosecco is a grape variety and that efforts to restrict its use are nothing more than protectionist measures used to distort trade to the advantage of EU producers,” McLean says. 

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Farmers “disappointed” with the deal

The National Farmers’ Federation says Aussie farmers are ‘extremely disappointed’ that negotiations concluded “without commercially meaningful agricultural market access gains”. Meanwhile, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) also calls the deal “extremely disappointing”. 

The red meat industry had been pushing for increased export quotas, and the MLA says that the new deal will “see the continuation of disproportionately low quotas for red meat, placing Australia at an ongoing competitive disadvantage in the highly valued EU market”.

Market access quotas for Australian red meat producers fall well below that which has been offered to other countries, including New Zealand. 

Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Tim Ryan goes so far as to call it a “kick in the guts” for the meat industry. 

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