Certain tariffs are no longer applicableEU and Australia sign trade agreement
This has been fought over for years, but now the European Union and Australia have agreed on a trade deal. This is intended to reduce tariffs for both sides. But for Europe it is also about becoming more independent from China.
The EU and Australia have concluded a trade agreement after years of negotiations. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed the agreement on Tuesday in Canberra with which the EU wants to secure access to important raw materials. It is intended to eliminate tariffs on both sides and facilitate trade in services and mutual investment.
Australia is “the world’s largest supplier of lithium and has raw materials that are crucial to the clean technologies of the future – from electric cars in Spain to offshore wind turbines in the Baltic Sea,” von der Leyen wrote in an op-ed in several European newspapers on Monday. The agreement is intended to eliminate tariffs on the raw materials themselves as well as on processed products.
The EU wants to become more independent from China, which currently supplies the majority of Europe’s raw material imports and holds numerous patents for processing. According to von der Leyen, the goal is to “ensure that no country can use access to energy, semiconductors or rare earth minerals as a weapon to take our economy hostage.”
The chemical industry and mechanical engineering benefit
Conversely, the EU exports machinery, chemicals and components for the transport sector to Australia. The German mechanical engineering and chemical industries are among the beneficiaries of the agreement.
The commercial contract now goes into legal review, which usually takes several months. In the EU it must also be translated into all 24 official languages. The European Parliament and the Australian Parliament must then ratify the agreement.
