This Report aims at examining the economic, social, environmental and human rights impacts of possible bilateral EU-Australian and EU-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements. The quantitative analysis is based on the CGE model employed by DG Trade. EU trade and investment ties with both countries are close, and mutual trade and investment barriers with Australia and New Zealand are on average low, with occasional peaks. The CGE model suggest overall positive effects on macroeconomic variables, with sectoral variances. GDP, trade and investment are expected to increase for the EU as well as Australia and New Zealand. SMEs can benefit, government procurement will open for the respective other country's enterprises. The model predicts positive longterm welfare effects for the both FTAs and limited but positive wage effects for workers in each trading partner. Consumers will largely benefit from proposed EU FTAs with Australia and New Zealand. Both FTAs will have only a minor impact on the environment and will not diminish human rights in the EU, Australia and New Zealand in general. Effects on GDP of third countries, in particular LDCs seems to be slightly negative but negligible.

Currently, the European Union (EU) and Australia (EU-AUS) as well as the EU and New Zealand (EU-NZ) are considering to start negotiating bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Indeed, both Australia and New Zealand are close partners to the EU. Thus, comprehensive economic relations could provide further integration in the wider region. The EU-Australia and EU-New Zealand trade and investment relations take place in a wider political and economic context. This is defined by the potential for further liberalization and for regulatory cooperation between the EU and the two countries with already existing high standards respectively. Regulatory cooperation may have positive feedback effects beyond access to the markets of the EU, Australia and New Zealand. The current study aims at examining exisiting barriers to trade and investment between the EU and Australia and between the EU and New Zealand, respectively; estimating impacts of removing or reducing these barriers to trade and investment flows on a sectoral basis; and analysing economic, social, environmental and human rights impacts of such policy change. Thereby it is feeding into the Commission's impact assessment.

Australia (together with New Zealand) is one of the few Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with which the EU does not have a comprehensive trade agreement. Australia and the EU are entering a new phase in the bilateral relationship, and the push towards a potential trade agreement has been steadily gaining momentum. This collection brings together diverse and deeply practical contributions to the forthcoming policy debate on the Australia–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), highlighting potential points of difficulty and possible gains from the agreement. This book makes two further contributions: it adds to the body of work reappraising the contemporary Australia–EU relationship; and provides a snapshot of current issues in trade policy—the ‘new trade agenda’—which is more complex and politically visible than ever. The issues confronting Australia and the EU in forthcoming negotiations are those confronting policy makers around the globe. They are testing public tolerance of decisions once viewed as dull and technocratic, and are redefining the academic treatment of trade policy. ‘… this book is especially important because it is talking about a very different type of trade agreement than the ones Australia has concluded recently with our major trading partners in East Asia. An agreement with the EU inevitably will focus on issues like services, investment, government procurement, and competition policy. These are major issues in their own right, are key parts of the new trade agenda, and are critical to Australia’s successful transition to a prosperous post–mining boom economy. In the absence of generalisable unilateral economic reform in this country, trade policy hopefully will provide an external source of pressure for reform. If this book adds to that pressure while also suggesting some of the tools needed for reform, it will have made a major contribution.’ Dr Mike Adams, Partner, Trading Nation Consulting

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed chapters reflecting on the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (AEUFTA). Since 18 June 2018, ten rounds of negotiations for a AEUFTA have been held in a constructive atmosphere, showing a shared commitment to move forward with this ambitious and comprehensive agreement. After a lengthy and arduous process interrupted by the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), the United States’ hesitations regarding the EU’s global strategy and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the negotiations between Australia and the European Union finally appear to be nearing completion. In challenging times, both parties share a commitment to a positive trade agenda, and to the idea that good trade agreements benefit both sides by boosting jobs, growth and investment. This book explores the challenges, achievements and missed opportunities in the AEUFTA negotiation process, and examines current legal and political relations between the EU, its Member States and Australia. Furthermore, it examines in detail a wide and diverse range of negotiated areas, including digital trade, services, intellectual property rules, trade remedies and investment screening, as well as dispute settlement mechanisms. Lastly, it sheds light on the likely nature of future commercial relations between Australia and the EU. Written by a team of respected authors from leading institutions in both Australia and Europe, the book provides a valuable, interdisciplinary analysis of the AEUFTA.

The European Union (EU) is the largest economic partner of Australia: the EU is Australia's second largest trading partner and the EU is Australia's largest investment partner. Yet, the EU remains the only major trading and investment partner with whom Australia does not have an Economic Integration Agreement or even a Preferential Trade Agreement, either in force or under negotiation. Without one, the legal and policy systems that regulate trade and investment between Australia and the EU must function in the complexity of different levels of political economy: non-unitary internal and external market constitutions against bilateral sectoral and multilateral general agreements on trade and investment. This book is the first to present a monographic study of the law and policy of trade and investment between Australia and the EU. Prof. Gonzalo Villalta Puig argues that a trade and investment agreement is necessary to remove the agricultural tariffs and quarantine requirements and to harmonize the regulatory divergences that bar bilateral trade. It is further necessary to facilitate and guarantee two-way investment. The book critically discusses: the Partnership Framework Agreement between Australia and the EU; the Mutual Recognition Agreement, Wine Agreement, and other sectoral agreements between Australia and the EU; the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Policy Reviews of Australia and the EU and disputes between them; Australia's biosecurity system of quarantine requirements and food safety standards, its Luxury Car Tax, Wine Equalization Tax rebate, use of geographical indications, and the effect of Australian Industry Participation rules on government procurement market access; the EU's agricultural protection system of tariff rates, export refunds, and Common Agricultural Policy direct payments and the consistency of its standards and technical regulations; the economic constitutions of Australia and the EU and their judicial interpretation; and the key provisions of a prospective trade and investment agreement between Australia and the EU. Original, significant, and rigorous, Economic Relations between Australia and the European Union: Law and Policy is certain to influence the development of both the bilateral relationship and the WTO as a multilateral forum for trade and investment liberalization. It is, thus, an essential reference for lawyers, customs brokers, freight forwarders, government officials, academics, and all professionals with an interest in the regulation of economic globalization.

This study explores the context and potential of the FTA negotiations between the EU and Australia and New Zealand. Through an analysis of the status quo, as well as several academic and policy analyses, it highlights the main opportunities for the EU from the negotiations, as well as potential threats and obstacles to agreement. The study explores in detail the likely impacts of market opening on trade in goods and services, as well as the potential in other key areas, including public procurement and investment. It also highlights the current architecture of FTAs which Australia and New Zealand have established, especially the very recent Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), to which both are party. It explores how these agreements impact on the EU’s competitiveness in the Australian and New Zealand markets and how FTAs could be leveraged to improve EU integration with these partners and their broader region. The study also considers how trade and sustainable development (TSD) can be effectively integrated into the agreements, in line with the objectives of the EU’s ‘Trade for All’ strategy. Finally, several potential wider, more political impacts of the FTAs are underlined.