1 week Ago By Rob Harris, Olivia Ireland
Australia will not side with China in its escalating trade war with the United States and is instead preparing for trade talks with the European Union after the 27-member bloc agreed to revisit negotiations against the backdrop of global uncertainties triggered by President Donald Trump’s tariff war. EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic proposed planning for a new timeline for reopening talks in an hour-long meeting with Australian counterpart Don Farrell via video-link on Wednesday evening, two years after extensive negotiations collapsed in 2023 over disagreements about agricultural access to the EU’s 450 million customers. Trade Minister Don Farrell is reopening talks about free trade with the European Union.
Credit: Alex Ellinghausen The prospect of renewed negotiations with the EU came after Defence Minister Richard Marles rejected Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian’s offer to “join hands” with Australia to respond to Trump’s tariffs, which the diplomat made in an opinion piece in this masthead on Thursday. Marles said on Thursday the government had not contacted China, which Trump has hit with a 125 per cent tariff after it put an 84 per cent tariff on American goods , to respond to the offer . “We’re not about to make common cause with China – that’s not what’s going to happen here,” Marles told Nine’s Today .
Instead, he said, Australia was trying to diversify its trading partners while stabilising its trade relationship with China. Any potential Australia-EU deal would eliminate about 98 per cent of tariffs and reduce red tape for companies doing business across borders. Business groups estimate an agreement would deliver a $6 billion boost to what is already Australia’s third-largest trading partner after China and Japan.
European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill told this masthead the discussions were “positive and constructive”, which came about at Australia’s request. “They discussed a possible timeline and the broader context for revisiting EU-AU FTA negotiations and bringing them across the finish line for the benefit of both sides,” Gill said. “As the Commissioner said earlier this week.
.. we are committed to diversifying our trade through new FTAs.
The Commissioner is engaging with EU Commission chief negotiators overseeing our active free trade agreement talks in order to assess how best to accelerate these talks.” Farrell has emphasised he wouldn’t sign a deal “just for the sake of it” and entered the meeting to assess if Europeans were ready for detailed negotiations after Australia’s May 3 election. The EU has been a particular target by Trump’s aggressive rhetoric, with the president describing the bloc “as a foe” which was established “to hurt the United States on trade.
” Before he dramatically backed down with a 90-day pause on Wednesday, the EU was slapped with a 20 per cent duty on all exports to the US. Less than 5 per cent of Australia’s goods exports go to the United States, compared to around 20 per cent of all the EU’s goods exports. Farrell told this masthead on Thursday the meeting was “very warm and constructive” and had gone “much longer than it had intended too” “We have agreed to resume talks face to face as soon as we can after the election, with a view to getting it done.
“The world has changed in a very short period of time and they seem a very genuine to get back to discussions and reach an agreement.” Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .
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