Ashleigh Gillon, Host: Australia will tomorrow host international trade partners from the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Certainly is a mouthful, but very important as one of the world's largest free trade blocs. Discussions in Melbourne will include enhancing investment opportunities and expanding the agreement's membership. The Philippines, China and Taiwan are among jurisdictions seeking admission to the 12-nation pact. For more, joining us live now is the Trade Minister, Don Farrell. Minister, thank you for your time. I understand you're meeting with your EU counterpart tomorrow morning. Do you expect you will achieve a breakthrough on the issue of how much meat Australian farmers can sell to the EU trading bloc, particularly beef and lamb?
Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism,: Well, that's certainly what we are pursuing with our European counterparts. We've made it clear on previous occasions in our negotiations with the Europeans that we want a better offer on agriculture, particularly for our wonderful beef and our wonderful lamb. So, the position I'll be putting to the Europeans is that if we can reach agreement, it's got to be on the basis that that's a good agreement for Australia. We're not just going to reach an agreement for the sake of an agreement. It has to be a good agreement. But there has to be an understanding from the Europeans that we will expect better access to their agricultural markets.
Gillon: I understand the Europeans haven't been pleased with Australia's luxury car tax and the impact that has on some of the really big European brands. Is Australia willing to compromise on that issue at all?
Trade Minister: Look, that's one of the items on the table. The Europeans have repeatedly said to me that their cars are uncompetitive, as against the Chinese electric vehicles. One of the reasons for that is that, of course, their cars are subject to the luxury car tax. So, we are prepared to have that discussion with the Europeans. But again, it's got to be on the basis that there's an acceptance that we have greater access to the European agricultural markets. This is a difficult issue for the Europeans. More than 12 months ago, they reached agreement with the South American countries. The Mercosur agreement, which gave access to a series of South American countries to the European markets. That still hasn't been approved by the European Commission. So, these are difficult issues for the Europeans, but my job is to push the case for Australian farmers, and that's exactly what I intend to do.
Gillon: Can you tell us a bit more about the discussions you're having with Europeans about how we use names for certain products? We were just showing our viewers some pictures of lovely feta cheese. Other names like prosecco and the like, are we likely to see changes in the way that businesses here are allowed to use those so-called geographical indicator product names?
Trade Minister: Look, the Europeans, with all of their free trade agreements, raised the issue of so-called geographic indicators. What I've said to the Europeans is that after the end of World War II, Australia accepted huge numbers of European migrants to this country. They brought their families, they brought their culture, but they also brought their food and their wine. And so much of the food and wine that we eat on a regular basis in Australia, of course, is that food and wine that they've brought from Europe. For these families and small businesses, whether they're wineries or restaurants, for these families, it's very important. Not just for an economic point of view, but it's a way that these families keep in contact with their heritage in Europe. And so I've been saying to the Europeans, it simply isn't fair to say to these families that have built up businesses in Australia using the skills that they brought from Europe to stop them from doing that. So, again, yes, this is an issue, and we are pushing back very hard against the Europeans on this issue.
Gillon: Okay, sounds like you're not for budging on that one. I did want to ask you about some news that's come through today, around the biggest Indian supplier of fuel to Australia. It's pledged to stop using Russian oil at its export refinery. Is the Albanese Government looking at applying bans at the refinery level to ensure that some of these supply chains aren't undermining what we're trying to do in terms of support for Ukraine?
Trade Minister: Ash, we've made it very clear that we don't want oil that's sourced from Russia coming to Australia. We already have regulations over this issue, and we'll be continuing to push to make sure that the oil that comes, or the petrol that comes to Australia, isn't sourced out of Russia. I met with the Ukraine ambassador last night, made it very clear what Australia's position on this issue is. We are totally opposed to Russia's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine as a country. We're doing more than any other NATO country to support the Ukraine, and we'll continue to do that.
Gillon: Ok, so looking at bans actually at a refinery level, as opposed to just broad country ban?
Trade Minister: Look, we'll make it very clear to all of those distributors that we don't want oil or petrol that's sourced from Russia. If it's coming in via India, we don't want that oil, and we're totally opposed to using Russian-sourced oil products in this country.
Gillon: Our largest trading partner, clearly, it's China. Has China raised concerns with you about the critical minerals deal that we've seen Australia strike with the US? As we know, most of our critical minerals at the moment are currently sent straight to China for processing.
Trade Minister: Well, I had my 12th meeting with my counterpart in China two weeks ago, Wang Wentao, and that wasn't one of the issues that they raised with us. We make decisions about who we sell our critical minerals to based on our national interests. As you say, we've recently reached an agreement with the United States, but we've also reached agreement with other countries. One of the things that I'll be talking about tomorrow morning to my European counterparts is how we attain greater European investment in our critical minerals. The Japanese are interested in talking to us; the South Koreans are interested in talking to us. Australia is the lucky country when it comes to critical minerals. We're on the cusp of a golden age in the supply of critical minerals around the world. We're talking to any country that is interested in helping us export those critical minerals, whether that's the United States, whether it's Europe or the other countries that I've just mentioned.
Gillon: But not China.
Trade Minister: No, as you say, we export to China. But your question to me was, did the Chinese raise the agreement between Australia and the United States? Well, no. The answer to that is no, Ash. They didn't raise that issue, and I wouldn't expect them to raise it. Australia makes our decisions on who we export to based on our national interest. We've got these products, we've got the technology to extract them. We want to value add on those products. I met with a company called Arafura yesterday based just outside of Alice Springs. They want to go up the supply chain in terms of critical minerals and rare earths. We're supporting those companies, but of course, we need investment. And of course that's why we're talking, for instance, tomorrow morning to the Europeans about this issue.
Gillon: I assume that at these trade talks, the big issue that would come up a lot, I assume, is Donald Trump's trade tariffs. How would you characterise at this point what those tariffs have done more broadly to world trade, the impact that they've had so far?
Trade Minister: Yeah, well, when a country applies tariffs to your goods, they're sending you a message that they want to buy less of your products. The message that I've been giving to my counterparts in the United States has been look, this is a counterproductive measure and will simply lead to your consumers paying more for the products that they consume. And, of course, what we saw last week was really the President of the United States, President Trump, accepting that argument that, in fact, by applying tariffs, you're actually simply pushing up the price of goods in your own country. So, from our point of view, we believe in free and fair trade. We want to export more of our wonderful products. This government is committed to the diversification of our trading relationship. We have reached a new agreement with the United Kingdom. Our trade with the United Kingdom has doubled. We've reached a new agreement with India. Our trade with India has almost doubled. We've just recently entered into a new agreement with the United Arab Emirates. All of our products now go into that country tariff-free. So, we're a country that believes in free and fair trade, and we are advocating for that for all of those countries around the world.
Gillon: Trade Minister Don Farrell, appreciate you making the time. Thank you.
Trade Minister: Thanks, Ash. Nice talking with you.