Trade agreement negotiations with Canberra getting tougher, says Bernd Lange

“Trust is a bit gone”, summed up the chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA), Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), on Monday 20 September, after the announcement last week of the creation of a defence alliance between the United States, the UK and Australia.

The MEP believes that this event will have an effect on the negotiations on the EU-Australia trade agreement. “I guess it will be much more complicated to conclude it”, he repeated.

At a press conference, the German Social Democrat expressed concern about Australian agricultural export volumes to the EU. “And the mood of compromise especially on the agriculture side, I guess in France especially, is quite limited”, he observed. 

Over the weekend, France’s Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, told the media outlet Politico that he had serious reservations about continuing trade talks with Australia.

Bernd Lange questioned the possibility of completely dissociating trade relations from the state of bilateral relations in general. “We always said we wanted to have trade relations as stable factors for good relations between countries without foreign security in our mind. But probably this has to be reflected”, he said.

For its part, the European Commission will “analyse the impact that this Australian announcement could have on the timetable of the negotiations” on the trade agreement, said its spokesman, Eric Mamer.

In June, at the last bilateral negotiating session, it was agreed to hold the 12^th session in October (see EUROPE 12745/6). 

On the other hand, with regard to the ongoing negotiations of future trade agreements, Bernd Lange said he was in a hurry to conclude those with Mexico and Chile, possibly before the end of the year. According to him, the first dossier is more or less finalised and the second is in the final stages. 

On the other hand, he does not see any quick progress on the EU/Mercosur free trade agreement. “I have serious doubts if it will come to ratification during this legislative term”, he said. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)