Brussels, 22/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - As reported yesterday in EUROPE (page 11), the European Union and Australia had intensive discussions in Brussels on Thursday about extending the scope of their bilateral co-operation, attended by the European Commissioner Chris Patten and the Australian foreign minister Alexander Dawner. They also touched on clandestine immigration (which affects both partners but which is dealt with rather differently) and the Doha Agenda multilateral trade negotiations that they want to be concluded within the deadlines, despite "modest" disagreements over certain issue, like Common Agricultural Policy and the steel conflict with the US.
After endorsing progress in the past year over settling up a European Centre at Australia's national university, a bilateral co-operation forum on scientific and technological research, the signing of a consumer protection agreements and the launch of negotiations over IT, the EU and Australian politicians confirmed their desire to extend co-operation and take advantage of the considerable as yet unexplored potential in cooperation and development (Commissioner Poul Nielson's visit to Australia in the autumn could be a decisive factor) and in civil aviation, where consultation within multilateral bodies like the WTO and the ICAO is on the cards. A pilot project was launched to promote university exchanges and encourage the mutual recognition of study grants. There is no question at the moment of replacing the 1997 joint political declaration or of singing an Association Agreement (Australia is refusing to accept a chapter on human rights), but simply of updating it and possibly extending it to reflect the rowing strength of the relationship between Australia and the EU, which is Australia's main trading partner, pointed out Mr Dawner. The ministers hope to endorse recommendations on "concrete" initiatives in this connection at their next meeting.
In terms of trade, the Geneva multilateral negotiations over the Doha Agenda were "fruitfully" discussed at length, with both sides confirming that despite disagreements over the Common Agricultural Policy, they were aware of the need to make progress and the need to be successful. The EU and Australia agree on a number of basic issues but it's now necessary to translate this into real progress on a wide round of negotiations, striking a balance between better access to the market and better game rules, reaching an ambitious outcome in the next three years, highlighted the ministers. The draft bilateral wine agreement has still not been finalised, but this will be done "as soon as possible", both sides pledged. On the draft EU services liberalisation plan (that Patten described as a low level document that didn't reflect the EU position and called on Australia to be equally transparent at this early stage in the process of preparing its own negotiating position), Dawner said that Australia has no intention of fully privatising the Post Office or abolishing the foreign investment monitoring mechanism, but pointed out that the negotiations had only just begun within the World Trade Organisation. In terms of steel, Australia sells some 30% of its steel products to the US (85% of which are exempt from the new surcharges), compared with 15% to Europe. It is also concerned at the diversionary impact that the US restrictions might have on steel flows across the world and the impact that the EU's retaliatory measures might have on Australian producers (the EU's measure are designed to prevent a surge in steel imports). Dawner said that the EU's provisional safeguard measures were less restrictive than the US's, but called on the Commission to provide as much information as possible on how the EU quotas would be managed. Other international current events "hot potatoes" covered included the situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and the politicians briefly discussed the Kyoto Protocol, with Australia expressing interest in rapidly singing an agreement on a process to lead to concrete reductions in emissions by developing countries.