The 14th round of Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (Australia-EU FTA) negotiations took place in Canberra on 6-10 February 2023. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade led the Australian delegation, which also included representatives from thirteen Australian Government agencies.
We made good progress on a range of issues across the FTA. We provisionally concluded a further three chapters and narrowed points of difference across the remaining text.
Trade in Goods
The National Treatment and Market Access for Goods Chapter text is well developed, with only a narrow range of issues unresolved. We continued discussions on market access for goods, focusing on specific agricultural and industrial products; and on a proposed anti-fraud mechanism.
Government Procurement
We continued a comprehensive exchange on government procurement market access.
Rules of Origin
We made progress on the chapter text, particularly on operational procedures and the introductory notes for the Product Specific Rules (PSRs) of Origin. We discussed the PSRs for agriculture and manufactured products and closed some chapters.
Trade Remedies
We discussed the EU’s outermost regions safeguard proposal in depth and outstanding procedural elements of bilateral safeguards, including consultation procedures and commitments.
Competition and Subsidies
We set a pathway for resolution of the remaining issues at Round 15. The Anticompetitive Conduct and Merger Control section is now provisionally closed.
Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
We closed provisions on International Standards, Transparency and Cooperation on Market Surveillance. We cleaned up text in the Conformity Assessment Article and related Annex, as well as the proposed Complementary Medicines and Cosmetics Annexes. We agreed further text on the Motor Vehicles Annex.
Services and Investment
We continued to discuss further improvements to our respective Revised Services and Investment Market Access Offers. The Services and Investment General Provisions, Cross-border Trade in Services Chapter and Investment Chapter are nearing conclusion. We provisionally closed the International Maritime Transport Services and Telecommunications Services chapters.
Intellectual Property
We resolved a number of longstanding issues across the Intellectual Property Chapter, including on Copyright, Trademarks and Border Measures. Discussions on geographical indications (GIs) focused on the relationship between GIs and trademarks and respective interests on key GI terms. The Australian Government has not agreed to any GI terms, and will only agree at FTA conclusion if the overall package is good enough.
State-owned Enterprises (SOEs)
We discussed the few remaining provisions in depth, including state and territory requirements.
Digital Trade
We discussed data flows, privacy and source code.
Energy and Resources
Both sides engaged on environmental impact assessments, offshore risk and safety, and renewable fuels. We also discussed the EU’s requests on third party access to energy transport infrastructure and energy and resources pricing.
Trade and Sustainable Development
We agreed provisions on trade and sustainable forest management, and climate change. We worked through labour provisions and the EU’s proposals on dispute settlement.
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
We exchanged views on the remaining issues in the SPS chapter, and will continue discussions intersessionally.
Sustainable Food Systems
Nearly all provisions in the Chapter are now agreed. We focused on indicative areas for cooperation in advancing the sustainability of food systems.
Preamble, Initial, Exceptions, Institutional, Dispute Settlement and Final provisions
We continued detailed discussions on the legal and institutional chapters.