The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, discussed, by videoconference on Thursday 26 November, topics such as the global response to the Covid-19 crisis, the climate and multilateral and bilateral trade relations.
With regard to trade, the meeting paid particular attention to the principles of fair competition and rules-based trade relations. They recalled, for example, the need to reform the current global trading system to address current problems of unfair competition. This is why both sides have committed to work together on the reform of the WTO, as well as its currently failing Appellate Body.
The European Union and Australia also noted good progress on the negotiations for a future bilateral trade agreement opened in 2018. Indeed, Australia is an interesting trading partner for the EU, which has exported the equivalent of €47.8 billion of goods and services in 2019 (for €15.2 billion of imports).
According to Charles Michel, the future trade agreement “will boost jobs and growth for both Australia and the European Union”.
See EU Council press release: https://bit.ly/3laRpIv (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)