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EU-AUSTRALIA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

In “A global Europe: Leveraging our power and partnerships”

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Background and state of play

The Commission presented the draft negotiating directives in September 2017. In May 2018, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate a free trade agreement with Australia, and adopted the related negotiating directives. According to the mandate, the 'Agreement should exclusively contain provisions on trade and foreign direct investment related areas'. The EU is committed to taking European agricultural sensitivities fully into consideration during the negotiations. Therefore, it also stated that the most sensitive products should be covered by specific provisions.

On 18 June 2018, negotiations were formally launched in Australia.

In 2016, the Commission undertook a public consultation on the future EU-Australia and EU-New Zealand trade and economic relations.

A Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) Draft Final Report carried out for the Commission was published in December 2019.

Main negotiation issues

During the first three negotiation rounds, that took place between July 2018 and March 2019, parties presented their respective positions, and began to draft parts of the text that were acceptable to both sides. The fourth negotiation round was held in July 2019, during which issues such as the underlying concepts and practices and the involvement of different levels of government were clarified.

During the sixth negotiation round held in February 2020, talks continued on the initial market access offers for goods. Discussions also covered the initial market access offers for services and investment and for public procurement. These first market access offers had been exchanged ahead of the round. Further progress was made in areas such as good regulatory practices, competition, as well as customs and trade facilitation. As regards the geographical indications (GIs), talks focused on the objections to EU GIs to be protected in Australia.

The seventh round of negotiations took place in May 2020. Discussions continued on the market access offers for goods. The parties also continued talks on services and investment, and came close to a provisional agreement on texts in most areas. As regards digital trade, provisions on, for instance, e-signature were agreed in principle. Good progress was also achieved in the areas of competition and state-owned enterprises, among others. Comprehensive discussions were held on the TSD Chapter.

During the eighth negotiation round in September 2020, parties further discussed their respective goods market access offers and market access offers for services and investment. They also previewed the approaches to the future exchange of the revised public procurement offers. Continued progress was also made on the Competition and Good Regulatory Practices Chapters, among others. Both sides provided updates on labour and climate policies, as well as on internal policy developments relating to the Energy and Raw Materials Chapter.

During the ninth negotiation round, a provisional agreement was reached on the chapter on Good Regulatory Practices.

During the tenth negotiation round, in March 2021, the chapters on customs and trade facilitation and on delivery services were provisionally concluded.

During the eleventh round, in June 2021, 26 working groups and sub-groups met covering almost all areas of the future trade agreement.

A twelfth negotiating round was originally scheduled for October 2021, but only took place 7-18 February 2022, reportedly as a result of tense relations between Australia and France following Australia's decision to cancel a submarine purchase agreement with France. Twenty-six working groups and sub-groups met covering all areas of the future trade agreement.

The thirteenth round of negotiations took place in Brussels on 17-21 October 2022. Provisionally concluded were the chapters on the Protocol on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Markets and on government procurement. 

The 14th round of negotiations took place in Canberra on 6-10 February 2023. The parties provisionally concluded a further three chapters.

The 15th round took place in Brussels on 24-28 April. 11 Chapters and sub-chapters, including technical barriers to Trade, or intellectual property rights (except GI) were provisionally concluded during this round.

Nevertheless, on 29 October, the EU and Australia decided to suspend talks on the FTA. 

  

Position of the European Parliament

In February 2016, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the opening of FTA negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. The EP supported the idea of negotiating FTAs with these countries. In October 2017, the European Parliament adopted a resolution containing a recommendation on the proposed negotiating mandate for trade negotiations with Australia. In the resolution the Parliament called on the Council to authorise the Commission to start negotiations with Australia. The MEPs also put forward a number of aspects that should be included in the negotiating directives. These include, among other things, the creation of new opportunities for EU companies in obtaining contracts with public authorities in strategic sectors; the inclusion of a specific chapter devoted to generating business opportunities for micro-enterprises and SMEs; special treatment for some sensitive agricultural products and a request that consideration should be given to the exclusion of the most sensitive sectors; and the preservation of governments' right to regulate with a view to achieving legitimate policy objectives.

During the previous parliamentary term, Sorin Moisă (EPP, Romania) was the standing rapporteur for trade relations with Australia in the INTA Committee.

 References:

Further reading:

Author: Angelos Delivorias, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu

 

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As of 21/05/2025.