NSW Farmers Association, Media Release, 26 October 2023
A rotten free trade deal with Europe would be a cheap photo opportunity that sells out farmers and rural communities, a peak body warns.
Murray River farmer and NSW Farmers Board member Chris Stillard said there were grave concerns the Albanese Government would ignore the agriculture sector and sign up to a bad trade deal with Europe, setting rural communities on a decades-long decline.
“This government has shown it’s only interested in farmers for photo opportunities over the past 18 months, and we’re worried they’re going to sell us out for some happy snaps in Osaka,” Mr Stillard said.
“They have delivered a year-and-a-half of bad policies that make it harder to grow the healthy plants and healthy animals that feed and clothe us, and while we’ve tried to be proactive and provide solutions, they have tin ears.
“If Trade Minister Don Farrell signs us up to a dodgy free trade deal this weekend, it will be proof this government doesn’t care about farmers or the rural and regional communities that rely on agriculture.”
The G7 Trade Ministers Meeting in Osaka this weekend would be the likely venue for a signing of a free trade deal between the European Union and Australia, but farmers had repeatedly warned the Albanese Government that the existing deal on offer was one-sided.
While the Australian agriculture sector had long supported a free trade agreement with the European Union that would deliver access to this large, high value market, it had to deliver value for both parties. Mr Stillard said not only did the current deal fail to offer commercially meaningful market access, it would also have direct impacts on Australian food producers.
“If we were to accept this deal as it stands, Australian farmers will be at a direct disadvantage to all of our commercial competitors like Canada, New Zealand and South America for the next 50 years,” Mr Stillard said.
“For example, the imposition of the EU’s Geographical Indicators regime is estimated to cost Australia between $70 and $90 million. But we’re not being offered decent market access to balance that.
“Farmers will never forgive the Albanese Government if it sells decades of disadvantage for a quick photo opportunity.”
