While imported luxury cars and fashion products will be cheaper in Australia, the deal means other countries will have better access to EU food markets than Australia.
VFF president Brett Hosking described it as an embarrassment and said it was clear the EU and Australia’s competitors had run rings around the negotiating team, with no improvement secured on the deal Australia rejected three years ago.
“For farmers, no deal would have been better than what we’ve been dealt,” Mr Hosking said.
“At a time when farmers are getting smashed by devastating water buybacks and skyrocketing fuel and fertiliser costs, we’ve been hung out to dry for the sake of getting the deal done.”
Mr Hosking said the deal could see many farmers impacted negatively.
“Australian agriculture is a net-exporter and the market access numbers simply don’t stack up,” he said.
“Beef access is a third of what industry was seeking, and for sheep meat, New Zealand got five times more.
“This puts us at the back of the pack going forward and at a disadvantage.
“For our dairy farmers, it’s largely a one-way deal. The EU already exports $980 million of dairy into Australia, with only $29 million going back.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow for the country’s largest dairy producing state,” Mr Hosking said.
Meat and Livestock Australia described it as the worst ever free trade agreement for the Australian red meat industry to date.
The deal was described as falling well short of delivering a significant increase in market access, despite repeatedly indicating it would not sign a bad deal.
While the incremental increase in quota access has been noted, the outcome is well below the Federal Government’s own objectives, let alone stakeholder expectations.
“Australia’s red meat sector has been profoundly let down by this outcome,” EU Red Meat Market Access Taskforce Australia chair Andrew McDonald said.
Australian farmers are extremely disappointed that negotiations for a free trade deal with the EU have concluded without commercially meaningful agricultural market access gains since Australia last walked away from negotiations.
“What the Australian Government has accepted today appears to offer no material change for key agricultural commodities as what the government rightly rejected in October 2023,” NFF president Hamish McIntyre said.
“A deal with a market of this size offered an opportunity to help ease the pressure on farmers who are grappling with the impacts from the conflict in the Middle East, China’s beef tariffs, and United States trade volatility, which are creating global trade headwinds.”
The NFF acknowledged some progress on issues such as geographical indicators, preserving the use of names like prosecco and parmesan, but farmers will rightly be concerned this deal hasn’t delivered commercially meaningful access for Australian agricultural exports.
“They will now pay the price for this subpar EU deal for decades to come,’’ NFF president Hamish McIntyre said.
“Questions will be asked as to how we can now advocate for others to liberalise trade, having accepted a deal ourselves that does not reflect the core tenet that free-flowing agricultural trade drives positive economic and sustainability outcomes.”
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