In a column published by Beef Central, National Farmers' Federation (NFF) president Hamish McIntyre urges every party in the Australian Parliament to vote against the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement, after news that the Coalition will oppose the deal as it stands. The views are the writer's own.
McIntyre writes that the NFF still opposes the agreement concluded in March because it offers no material improvement for key farm commodities on the proposal the government rejected in October 2023. The federation supports free and fair trade and more farm trade with Europe, he says, but the deal must give "commercially meaningful and competitive access" to Australian agriculture.
He argues that the agreement would "lock in decades of disadvantage" when beef, dairy and sugar are already under pressure, and that farmers cannot be expected to accept poor access while European producers keep billion-dollar subsidies, which he calls a double blow to competitiveness.
The column also quotes Cattle Australia chief executive Will Evans, who said the beef access secured will be phased in over a decade and will then allow about 30,000 tonnes a year. "In the last 12 months Australia exported about 30,000t of beef each week. So after a decade at the table with one of the largest trading blocs in the world, what we've gained is roughly one week's worth of production," Evans said. "That is not a fair trade. It is a one-way street."
Photo: CSIRO / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: Beef Central
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