Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 1:27:10 to 1:33:46
Senators question the department on historical beef export volumes to the EU and how Brexit and US-EU side deals have impacted Australian market access.
Topics: Beef exports, EU free trade agreement, Trade policy
Speakers: Senator Matthew Canavan, George Mina, Cathy Raper
>> uh, can I just check then with this beef situation? What's happened to our quota to the EU of beef exports over the past uh, Um, what was it 10 years ago? What was it today? What is it today? And what is it meant to be under this agreement?
Well, Senator, um the major event in that period uh in what was quite uh low access to begin with was the uh as as you've already said the the uh decision by the UK to leave the European Union and in that context uh a an even an even uh further reduction by the EU27 and the available access to beef. We can go into more detail if you wish.
>> Sure. So, prior to Brexit, um, Australian exporters could export 9,300 tons of beef to the EU, including the UK. But once the UK left the EU in 2021, this quota was split roughly in half. So, 4,900 tons for the UK, 4,400 tons for the EU, which is where we're still
>> Didn't we have access to some other global quota as well?
>> We do have access to what was 10 years ago. that was uh established um by the EU but has been reduced following US dispute action. That's right. Um and is now um it's a share of a global quota I think of 10,000 tons but that is shared amongst um all countries who wish to access it. So it's not guaranteed.
So I mean on the when I speak to beef producers and the reason they're ropable about this deal is that their view is that the extra the access we get into this deal really at best reestablishes what we had before the EU side deal with the first Trump administration. What do you say to that claim?
I think based on the numbers I've just read out, this access will be higher than
>> But that those that 10,000 the 9,000 doesn't include the access to the global quota, does it?
>> But that's not guaranteed access.
>> Okay, it's not guaranteed, but we had it. We we were able to. I've seen some figures showing we exported around 30,000 tons to the EU a decade or so ago, and this deal does 35. So, I mean, this is where people get really upset about being gaslighted. I mean, beef producers aren't fools. They know the EU sold us down a river in 2019 when they did a side deal with the EU with the Trump administration. It's their right. Okay, they did it. Uh and effectively now we're being asked to get out the champagne corks for a deal that just goes back to what we had before the first Trump administration. >> Doesn't seem like a great deal for us.
>> But again,
>> on those terms,
>> sorry, Senator, as we explained earlier, um those earlier figures were based on the EU28. So you have to look at both the EU FTA and the UK FTA outcomes as being the equivalent of that pre-rexit
>> Well, I suppose I'm I'm happy for you to Do you have the figures for what we exported to the EU 27 over the past decade in tons?
>> Um, we will have that number, but I'll have to take that on notice today.
>> Well, I mean, that's the relevant thing. I mean, you you you're here saying it's such a great deal. >> Well, I would like to see, okay, how much better it is relative to before. uh the EU decided to do a side deal with the Trump administration say that's their right >> but you know for us then to turn around and celebrate just the unwinding of that seems a bit rich
>> just on on on the points you're making senator about the historical access to the EU market um couple of things over the last several years in fact really effectively decade uh as Miss Roper said it is has been quite low uh you are right that not only Brexit but also So the uh US EU negotiation after the uh hormones beef case was taken at the WTO have impacted significantly on our ability to access the EU market. Uh and in fact uh over successive decades we have seen a a tightening of access. Um so so with both the UK and EU deals we we are restoring and and boosting significantly beyond the kind of access levels we have had historically. Now the the choice is not you know uh rewinding to a period before the US and EU uh negotiated their bilateral deal or in fact uh a choice uh about whether we could control the conditions with respect to to Brexit. what we can control is is negotiating our way to guaranteed new access and doing that in a way that is comparable or better than all of our competitors. So the point you're making about some historical erosions is is a fair one, but noting the point that uh you know we we only have control over these negotiations bilaterally. uh we've achieved an outcome that is comparable or better and in our view uh is is one we should be taking. We left nothing on the table on both quantity and quality.
>> Look, the the problem here is I don't think our benchmark should be inferior deals that other countries have uh signed up to the EU. Our benchmark should be the high standards that the Australian government has always demanded for free trade agreements, including the former coalition government. When we signed the UK free trade deal deal, we have eventually unlimited access to export beef to the UK. Uh this deal by weakening uh our high standards uh on these matters weakens our long-term bargaining position because clearly the government has been a pushover here on this. They walked away from the same deal 3 years ago now walked back and signed it. That is the definition of a pushover. Uh which puts us in a weaker position going forward to negotiate strong access uh uh with other countries. Uh I think it's very unfortunate. It's a point. It's not just I'm making the National Farmers Federation made this specific point in their remedy release on the day after. And if the access is so great, it's a little bit surprising that no beef uh uh lo beef representative group uh the NFF, no sugar group, no dairy group has come out in favor of this deal. Senator,
that's why they haven't. It's a fact that our current guaranteed access is 4,400 tons of beef to the EU and that's all it will ever be unless we take this.