The twelfth round of Australia – European Union Free Trade Agreement (Australia-EU FTA) negotiations took place virtually on 7-18 February. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade led the Australian delegation, which included representatives from more than ten government agencies.
During the round we made progress on a range of technical issues across the FTA. Ahead of the round, on 1 February, we exchanged revised government procurement market access offers.
Trade in Goods
The Parties had constructive discussions on a range of goods market access issues, and continued work on the parameters to guide the future exchange of revised offers.
Government Procurement
The Parties had detailed exchanges on revised government procurement market access offers, and continued discussions on key remaining areas of the chapter text.
Rules of Origin
The Parties made solid progress on the Rules of Origin (ROO) chapter text, particularly on the origin procedures. Detailed discussion on value calculations allowed us to align our positions further. We discussed Product Specific Rules (PSRs) for agricultural and manufactured products, and provisionally agreed a further 9 chapters of the PSRs.
Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters / Anti-Fraud
The Parties advanced the Protocol on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters, and continued discussions on the EU's proposed Anti-Fraud mechanism.
Trade Remedies
The Parties agreed the article on Procedural Rules for Bilateral Safeguard Measures, as well as obligations concerning the progressive liberalisation of certain bilateral safeguard measures that may be applied. The Parties agreed to explore solutions to the remaining issues, but noted that most of these were directly related to the goods market access package.
Competition and Subsidies
On Anticompetitive Conduct and Merger Control, the Parties continued to discuss ways to reflect the exemptions in our respective competition laws. On Subsidies, we made progress on some elements of the text.
Technical barriers to trade (TBT)
The TBT group cleaned up some chapter text, and had detailed discussions on the Conformity Assessment and Vehicles annexes.
Services and Investment
The Services and Investment General Provisions, Cross-border Trade in Services Chapter, International Maritime Transport Services section, and Telecommunications Chapter are all close to conclusion. The Parties also resolved key articles in the Temporary Entry and Presence of Natural Persons for Business Purposes Chapter and the Investment Chapter.
The Parties provisionally closed the Domestic Regulation Chapter. A key objective of the Chapter is to reduce red tape for Australian exporters to the EU.
Intellectual Property
The Parties continued discussions on all issues in the Intellectual Property Chapter, agreeing text on a range of issues while also identifying areas where further work was required. Discussions on geographical indications (GIs) focussed on matters regarding GI enforcement and potential ways forward on issues raised by Australian stakeholders concerning EU GI terms. We consistently noted that Australia would only agree to protect EU GIs under the FTA at the end, if the overall deal was in Australia's interests.
SPS and Animal Welfare
The Parties had further discussions on the SPS Chapter, and made progress on the text on certification requirements for agricultural commodities. We reached agreement on text on scientific robustness and transparency in product approvals processes. We continued discussions on the EU's proposal for cooperation on sustainable food systems.
State-owned Enterprises (SOEs)
The Parties continued to narrow differences in the SOEs chapter, with very few outstanding provisions remaining.
Energy and Resources
The Parties had detailed discussions on a range of issues across the chapter, including on critical minerals and the EU's proposed third party access to energy transport infrastructure provisions.
Trade and Sustainable Development
The Parties discussed all elements of the Chapter, including trade and labour, trade and environment and climate, and trade and gender.
Dispute settlement
Following Round 12, the Dispute Settlement chapter is close to completion.
Transparency, Exceptions, Institutional and Final provisions
We provisionally closed the Transparency Chapter. The Parties also engaged in detailed discussions on the Exceptions, Institutional and Final Provisions Chapters.
Digital Trade
The Parties discussed the Digital Trade Chapter in detail, including our positions on data flows and privacy.