Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 19:40 to 23:46
Senator Cadell asks about the depth of industry consultations and specific concerns regarding tariffs on engineered timber and the luxury car tax in the context of the EU FTA.
Topics: Forestry, Luxury car tax, Tariffs
Speakers: Mr. Ravi Kewalram, Ross Cadell, Mr. Lachlan Crews, Raff Ciccone, Senator Raff Ciccone, Senator Ross Cadell
much. Okay, Senator Cadell, >> just some followups on the EU if I can. I like the phrase, Mr. Cruz, and I understand your position, not going to speculate. Haven't there been briefings with groups in Australia like MLA and uh
ALFP with actual numbers? Um, there have. So, I can give you some numbers in terms of consultations. uh in between the launch of the negotiations in 2018 and October 2023 when the Osaka uh deal failed uh we conducted more than 1,167 consultations with external stakeholders and received 1,14 submissions. So that's in the initial phase. Um, since we re-engaged in the middle of last year with the EU, we've conducted over a 100 external stakeholder meetings, including with peak bodies, civil society, industry groups, and individual companies. We're continuing to hear from stakeholders as recently as the end of last week, uh, what what they want and
what their interests are. >> But not numbers of uh, consultation I was talking about, but in terms of quotas and tariffs and things like that, you have given real numbers to these groups in the last couple of weeks, haven't you? Where where they sit. I
haven't been involved in those discussions. Uh but I [laughter] the the industry looks at the numbers that are out there and I know there's been some public commentary about that. >> Okay. >> So the industry is aware of certain numbers being bandied around. They're not at the table in Brussels though.
>> Right. >> I'll ask you a comment.
>> But [clears throat] as a department you have put real numbers and quotas and potential tariff drops in front of industry groups in the last two weeks, haven't you?
>> So Senator, if I can answer that on a general basis. the consultations that Mr. Cruz uh referred to there uh do go into understanding industry expectations. So across each sector um there is always in an FDA uh negotiation of any so I'm not talking EU FTA because as you know not the CN for the EFA um but in any negotiation there is um I'd say like a framework or you know ballpark figures uh that are received from industry as to what they would see as being acceptable or not. But as Mr. Cruz said this that's not to say that there's been a specific number uh necessarily that you know a definitive number that's been said uh as far as I understand it but yes of course what constitutes a good deal in their mind is very much part of the input that we
receive. So for instance, imagine going back 27 days ago when I might have been a shadow minister for timber. Um they >> days >> uh they might have mentioned like the timber industry having issues with the 5% tariff on engineered timber and beams and you go to Sydney Fish Market which has a beautiful timber roof that was imported from Italy with the 5% tariff in touch. Should they be fearful of that dropping to zero so more of the Australian timber engineered products uh
don't go into buildings like that? Senator Cadell, again, um um it's a it's a very nice way of getting to a very similar point, which is we're not going to speculate on outcomes.
>> Well, that's fine. I'm uh happy to I'm just going to say we are aware of that specific concern as well, right,
>> from the industry. Yeah. >> Well, I will give away a personal negotiating position for any of those listening and I more than happy for Minister Farrell to give more ground on the luxury car tax as I always say in this. So, uh is that up for chat at all?
The EU has expressed interest in changes to the luxury car tax. As with everything else, it will come down to what the final balanced outcome looks
like. >> Given that win, thank you very much. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Chair. >> You're welcome, Senator Cadell. Thanks for that. Maybe we'll see you back in a different capacity in six weeks time. >> No, no, [laughter] no, no. First of March. >> Okay. First of March. Okay. Um, >> well, that's depends. [laughter] >> And good evening to Senator Cadell. Now, Senator Henderson, have you got any more trade related questions?