Australia and the EU will sign a free trade agreement (FTA) under which new or expanded tariff quotas will increase beef and sheep meat trade to the world's largest single market, but the deal fails to deliver for Australia's exporters, industry members said.
The deal signed between Australia's prime minister Anthony Albanese and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will lower trade and investment barriers, Albanese said on 24 March.
But farm lobbies have slammed the pact as extremely disappointing. The National Farmers' Federation said it was concerning that years of negotiations had failed to deliver commercially meaningful access for Australia's agricultural exports.
The agreement represents the "worst deal ever" for red meat exporters, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) said, in what it called a repudiation of the government's previous pledge it would not sign a sub-par deal for meat sector market access.
Just 30,600t of beef access has been granted over the next 10 years, when a minimum of 50,000t is needed to match what the EU has offered Australia's competitors, the MLA said, adding that 55pc of this is tariff-free and the remainder attracting a 7.5pc tariff.
For sheep meat and goat meat, a disappointing 25,000t over seven years has been agreed, MLA said, despite Australian industry requesting a minimum of 67,000t.
Australia's beef exports to the EU totalled 24,503t in 2025, while former EU member the UK, which left the common market in 2020, received 16,865t.
"This stands in stark contrast to New Zealand's access of 163,769t — which is an outrageous discrepancy," chair of the Australia–EU Red Meat Market Access Taskforce Andrew McDonald said, given Australia already provides the EU with quota- and tariff-free access for meat products like pork.
