this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Australian producers to keep prosecco, feta and parmesan as European Union trade deal doomed (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 year ago by Nath@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] Nath@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

I frankly don't care whether they rename drinks and cheeses because Europeans hate that their stuff is inferior to local products. Well, except Feta - the Greek stuff is amazing.

In general, we'll happily keep buying the same brands we already buy and it'll mean diddly squat for sales of imports.

I'm not sure what the real sticking point of a trade deal is, it probably has something to do with politics. I'm not even sure why we want a trade deal - the EU is very far away, and if we're talking food, that's a lot of transport carbon to offset in either direction.

What products are the sides really wanting to trade? Are they after our dirt?

[–] CalamityJoe@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I also noticed the article seemed a little vague regarding ideal goals of an FTA between Australia and EU.

Seems like the EU mostly wanted Australia to agree to their geographical indicator rules (e.g. not allowed to use feta, Prosecco etc names) and for Australia to agree to much more ambitious climate action and sustainability targets.

So that kind of explains why they aren't too fussed about reaching an agreement with Australia (plus Australia upset France by withdrawing from its submarine deal the way it did), whereas Australia had a lot more to gain.

  • Reducing or eliminating the current excise levels (7-12%) across industrial goods,
  • increasing or eliminating altogether the allowed currently very restrictive quotas of agricultural goods that can be exported to EU, and
  • building towards mutual recognition of professional licensing and registration, so workers can more easily move between EU and Australia.

But the EU being almost half a billion people vs our 26 million, we were never going to have very effective leverage I think.

(This link had better details https://www.claytonutz.com/knowledge/2022/july/free-trade-agreement-between-australia-and-the-european-union-back-on-the-table-with-some-caveats)

[–] sqgl@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

and for Australia to agree to much more ambitious climate action and sustainability targets.

Money talks. Maybe Albo will get serious about the climate now. Pissing in the pool is generally frowned upon, especially when the grown ups do it.

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