Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me enormous pleasure today to stand to speak in support of the motion moved by the member for Page, the shadow minister for trade and tourism.

The European Free Trade Agreement is going to be a critical development in Australia's trading relationship with the rest of the world. The European Union is our second-largest trading partner at the moment, but unfortunately there is a massive trade imbalance, with the European Union exporting a great deal more of its products and goods and services to Australia than we export to them. The total two-way trading partnership is worth $74 billion. The European Union, as a bloc, has a population of 450 million people, a great number of whom are high-income earners who are willing customers. We certainly need to be able to access those customers.

When I was a young farmer growing up in the 1980s, studying economics and marketing at university, the European Union was often used as an example of what not to do when it came to trade. Their international tariffs, particularly in agriculture and agricultural goods, restricted the access of Australian farmers to the European market. It also led to inefficiencies in their own systems and, really, at the end of the day no-one was better off other than some European farmers who received enormous subsidies for their products.

Hopefully, and I'm sure in this modern world, we have moved beyond those old protectionist policies, although I do understand that the European Union are looking to protect some of their industries, farmers and other trades with carbon tariffs. That is certainly something that I'm sure the current government will resist with the utmost vigour when it comes to the negotiations because a tariff—whether it be a carbon tariff or a financial tariff—is a tariff. Free trade agreements are about reducing tariffs, reducing trade barriers and allowing the efficient flow of goods and services throughout the global economy. So carbon tariffs are certainly something that I'm sure an Australian government, of whatever stripe, will never agree to.

I want to talk a bit about the history of the coalition's record in government when it comes to free trade agreements. Since 2013 we had signed 11 free trade agreements, lifting the share of Australia's global trade from 27 per cent in 2013 to 80 per cent by the time we left government in May 2022. The European free trade agreement will lift that number to 90 per cent. I certainly hope that the current government is focused on getting the best outcome and getting on with this deal, because it is a very significant market and will be a very significant deal going forward. I'm looking forward to seeing the government come up with the best possible deal for Australia.

I have a couple of statistics on the European deal. The European Union has a surplus of $23 billion for goods and $14 billion for services exported to our country. That is their surplus. We sell to the EU $4 worth of food per person and they export to Australia $200 worth of food per person. Given that Australia is one of the most self-sufficient food-producing nations in the world, that is a number that is unacceptable. I'm sure that with the upcoming negotiations we will see that number come back into balance.

I want to just touch on some of the numbers that other countries have achieved through their free trade agreements. New Zealand has access for 163,000 tonnes of sheepmeat and Australia has a quota of just over 17,000 tonnes. I mention that in particular because I am a Western Australian representing in this place Western Australian farmers, and our sheepmeat industry is a very important part of the rural landscape. With the current government's policy of phasing out the live export trade we absolutely need access to every market we can get.

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