Sheep Producers Australia director Allison Harker
SHEEP producers are being urged to express their views on the pending EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement to their federal Member of Parliament.
Peak body Sheep Producers Australia has said a “once-in-a-generation test for Australian sheep meat trade Australia is at a critical, defining moment in negotiations with the European Union.”
“And the outcome of the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement must deliver a genuinely fair deal for Australian sheep meat,” the SPA said in a statement.
While the peak body has been reluctant to interfere in trade negotiations – it was noticeably silent on the issue of the Trump lamb tariffs — SPA director Allison Harker today urged Australian sheep producers to make their voices heard by contacting their local federal Member of Parliament and reinforcing how critical a fair Australia–EU FTA is for farm businesses, regional jobs and long-term industry resilience.
“This is a defining moment for Australian sheep producers,” she said.
“Direct, local advocacy matters. MPs need to understand what’s at stake for regional and remote communities if this deal falls short.”
Ms Harker said there are discussions about finalising the EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
“There’s ambition on both side to conclude negotiations within the next two months, and the upcoming visit of the EU Commissioner to Australia in late February or early March presents a potential window for the agreement to be formally concluded.”
At the G20 summit in Johannesburg South Africa in November last year Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would like to see the FTA finalised in the first quarter of this year.
Sheep Producers Australia said it supports the continuation of negotiations only on the clear and non-negotiable condition that Australian sheep meat receives substantially increased, commercially meaningful market access.
Ms Harker said a significant improvement in trade access would need to be reached to ensure the Government’s stated objective to secure a trade-enhancing agreement.
“When negotiations commenced, the EU clearly understood Australia’s purpose, to achieve significantly improved market access for Australian agricultural products,” she said.
“The intention was to unlock opportunity – good result for Australia and its sheep meat sector.
“The final outcome must not lock Australian sheep meat into a perpetual competitive disadvantage, compared with access already granted to other suppliers, and it must not be compromised by restrictive conditions that render access meaningless in practice.”
Ms Harker said the broader trade picture reinforces why this deal must be fair and equitable.
“The EU maintains a strong trade surplus with Australia – both overall and specifically in agricultural goods. Australian red meat supply chains rely heavily on EU inputs – including equipment, technology, finance and professional services – yet Australian lamb and mutton account for less than one per cent of total EU red meat consumption.
“Addressing this imbalance will go a long way to supporting the EU’s own rhetoric of a ‘level playing field’,” Ms Harker said.
Ms Harker said the EU benefits from open access to Australian markets and supply chains, while continuing to tightly restrict access for our world-class sheep meat and lamb.
“The potential gains from a fair Australia–EU FTA are too significant to risk – stronger export returns, greater market diversification, and long-term resilience for Australian sheep producers.”
Important there is no uncertainty on FTA importance
Australia-European Union Red Meat Market Access Taskforce chair Andrew McDonald said SPA is being proactive in making sure that there is no uncertainty in Federal Parliament and government on the enthusiasm of sheep producers for a good FTA outcome.
“Obviously the market that they’ve been given in Albanese’s commentary and (European Commission president) Ursula von der Leyen’s in terms of Q1 2026 was a timeframe that would be their target – we’ve got just under two months by a couple of days to see that through.
“So that would suggest that there is a push to move in that timeframe,” he said.
“So I think they (SPA) are on the front foot, which is the right thing because there is no point in leaving any uncertainty in that space.
“I think it is a good thing that people are aware of the opportunity that’s there for the red meat industry in Australia and the EU deal is something that agriculture has a really strong interest in an outcome for different reasons,” he said.
“The EU trade bloc has been a challenge for us over the last 50 years.”
On where negotiations are at, Mr McDonald said there has been a pick up in communications between Australian and EU parties “but in terms of set dates, not that I’m aware of.”
“Both leaders of those institutions have come forward previously with that aspiration of Q1 2026, so until nominated otherwise we will work on the assumption that that’s the timeline.”
Australia disadvantaged by current EU quota regulations
According to a Meat & Livestock Australia market snapshot Australia has a 5851 tonne cwe (combined sheep meat/ goat meat) country-specific import quota into the EU.
Out-of-quota imports from Australia incur prohibitive import duties of 12.8 percent, plus up to an additional €3.10/kg. There is also a 200 tonne erga omnes sheep meat and goat meat quota that is accessible to a number of countries, MLA said.
MLA said Australian sheep meat access is currently disadvantaged compared to New Zealand, which has a 125,769 tonnes cwe sheep meat and goat meat tariff free quota annual allocation from 1 July 2023.
MLA said although New Zealand has not fully utilised its EU quota in recent years, reaching just 42pc of the allotted volume in 2023-24, its sheep meat export volumes to the EU were 15 times larger than Australia for the same period.
New Zealand and the EU signed the New Zealand – European Union Free Trade Agreement (NZ-EU FTA) on 1 July 2022 which entered into force on 1 May 2024. The agreement will allow an additional 38,000 tonnes of NZ sheep meat imports after a seven year transition period, MLA said.
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