Actually, the EU should break new ground with the trade pact with Australia. However, there are issues in the last meters.
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| Canberra, the capital of Australia |
Canberra keeps upping the pressure in the last steps leading up to the signing of a free trade deal with Australia, which is desired in Brussels: On Australian television on Sunday morning, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said that the offer from the European Union was far from enough. It simply isn't good enough.
Australia does not request any more from Brussels than it has already given to other nations. Unfortunately, the EU is not yet prepared to cooperate, Watt added. Australians are mostly worried about beef's access to more markets. In Australia, the breeders have a significant political impact. Australians tune in to the Sunday chat program in such large numbers that Watt's remarks are met with considerable anticipation.
In Rome, where the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) meets, Watt had met with a number of European ministers. According to the minister, many of the individuals he met with believed that Australia was OK with the proposals from Brussels. "It was very helpful to make it clear that this was not the case," he added.
For at least five years, negotiations have dragged on. The pact ought to serve as an illustration of a "slimmed-down free trade agreement," through which the Europeans want to win over Asian nations. Watt stated on Sunday, "We have to see that the offer that the EU will make to Australia in terms of agriculture will be much higher than what we currently have on the table."
The anticipated mid-August resolution, according to Trade Secretary Don Farrell, was in doubt last week. "At the moment, we don't have a sufficient offer from the Europeans." For more discussions, Farrell could take a flight to Brussels in the upcoming days.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU trade commissioner, has earlier stated in public that the agreement may be reached in mid-July during the NATO summit in Lithuania. Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, is scheduled to go to Europe to take part in the summit in Lithuania.