Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the opposition, I'll make a contribution to these bills, the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025 and Customs Tariff Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025. It was the former coalition government who initiated the Australia-UAE agreement via announcement with the UAE in March of 2022.

When the former coalition agreement was elected in 2013, our goods and services covered by a free trade agreement were at 25 per cent, and by 2022 it had gone to 80 per cent, including the agreements with the UK and India. The former coalition government ratified the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade agreement, and signed FTAs with Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Peru and Indonesia, as well as regional agreements across the Indo-Pacific, including the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations, PACER, and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Live sheep are a key commodity for the UAE, who import for religious, cultural and social reasons. This deal with the UAE could have supported the industry for years to come. Instead, those opposite have turned their backs on our farmers and left them out in the cold by ending the live sheep trade domestically.

Of course, there are some benefits to this agreement. The agreement is Australia's first free trade agreement with a nation of the Middle East. The UAE is Australia's largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East. Australian exporters will benefit from the elimination of tariffs on over 99 per cent of Australian goods exports to the UAE by value. Once fully implemented, it is estimated to increase Australian exports by around $678 million per annum. When fully implemented, CEPA will eliminate tariffs over 99 per cent of Australia's exports to the UAE by value, with most tariffs eliminated on entry into force or locked in at zero, and others eliminated over three or five stages.

Removal of the UAE's import tariffs will create commercially significant benefits for Australian exporters, which opens opportunities for Australian exporters to diversify into this important Middle East market and provides greater certainty on the tariff treatment they will receive. CEPA will also benefit exporters of products such as automotive parts, gold, nickel, coal and diamonds. Farmers and food and beverage producers stand to gain from our preferential access to the UAE's growing market for premium food and agricultural products with the elimination of tariffs on products such as frozen beef, sheepmeat, canola seeds, dry legumes and dairy.

With $9.43 billion in two-way goods and services trade in 2023—over $10 billion, of course, in the pre-COVID era—the UAE is Australia's 21st-largest trading partner globally. Goods and services exports to the UAE were worth $5.2 billion in 2023 and were dominated by alumina, meat and oil seeds. Australian goods and services imports from the UAE were worth $4.7 billion in 2023 and mainly consisted of petroleum products and urea. Australian exporters will benefit from the elimination of tariffs on over 99 per cent of Australian goods exports to the UAE, by value. Once fully implemented, it's estimated to increase Australian exports by around $678 million per year.