By Kirsty Needham
(Reuters) – Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was important for exporters to gain access to European markets under any EU free trade deal, and he would raise obstacles to an agreement in talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.
Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell, who is in Brussels for negotiations, said on Monday the offer on the table from the European Union was not acceptable, with agriculture a sticking point.
Ensuring access to European markets for Australian beef, sheep meat, sugar and dairy in commercially meaningful volumes are key to agreeing a deal, Australian officials have said.
Albanese will meet Macron on Tuesday on the sidelines of the NATO leaders summit in Lithuania.
Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday morning, Albanese said he would tell Macron that Australia wants to conclude a free trade agreement but the country would not sign up to things that were not in its national interest.
“France of course has raised some issues… But we’re not asking for anything that other countries have not received,” he said.
“It is important that Australia get access to those markets, and the world benefits from trade,” Albanese added.
A trade deal with the EU, a market of around 450 million consumers, would be a significant boost for Australia’s push to diversify its export markets, after major trading partner China imposed blocks on a raft of Australian agricultural products in a 2020 political dispute.
National Farmers Federation CEO Tony Mahar urged Australia’s trade negotiators to “continue to hold the line” in talks with the EU.
“We are better to walk away than to agree a dud deal,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Australia and the EU had expected to conclude the deal this month before negotiations stalled over agriculture.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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