{"id":448510,"date":"2026-03-24T13:47:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/24\/esulta-lindustria-critici-gli-agricoltori-laccordo-ue-australia-divide\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:39:06","slug":"industry-cheers-farmers-protest-the-eu-australia-trade-deal-divides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/24\/industry-cheers-farmers-protest-the-eu-australia-trade-deal-divides\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry cheers, farmers protest: the EU\u2013Australia trade deal divides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Businesses are celebrating, farmers are holding back: the EU-Australia free trade agreement is dividing the business community. The dynamics and positions already seen during the trade deal with Mercosur – strongly supported by the secondary sector and rejected by the primary one<\/a> – are resurfacing. BusinessEurope, the confederation of European industry associations, therefore welcomes the signing. “This agreement is a win for both sides,<\/strong>” said the association\u2019s president, Fredrik Persson<\/strong><\/span>. “With EU Foreign Direct Investment in Australia already being close to \u20ac123 billion<\/a>, we expect that the agreement will open the door to further investment<\/strong> across a diverse range of sectors, including security and defence,” he added enthusiastically. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The automotive sector is also pleased. ACEA<\/strong>, the European Automobile Manufacturers\u2019 Association, notes that the reduction in tariffs on vehicles “will put EU exports on an equal footing with other major auto exporting countries, who already enjoy duty-free access to the local market.” Furthermore, “automotive parts will also be fully liberalised.” Overall, therefore, the European automotive industry “supports the EU-Australia free trade agreement.<\/strong>” To truly benefit from it, however, it will need to come into force. “We ask the European Commission and, in their turn, EU member states and the European Parliament, to give their timely approval <\/strong>to allow for its implementation as soon as possible,” ACEA added.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The reaction from Copa and Cogeca<\/strong>, the European agricultural confederations, was quite different. The conclusion of the free trade agreement between the EU and Australia “raises multiple and strong concerns for European agriculture<\/strong>, which is clearly and once again the bargaining chip of the EU strategy to secure broader trade and political objectives,” the organisations said in a statement<\/a>. According to the agricultural sector, the signing of the free trade agreement reflects \u201ca vision that responds to the emergencies of the moment, but whose medium-term consequences will be unsustainable for many sensitive farming sectors.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n

Politicians, on the other hand, were jubilant. The Chair of the European Parliament\u2019s Committee on Foreign Affairs<\/a> Committee, David McAllister <\/strong>(EPP), highlights the geostrategic significance of an agreement through which \u201cWe are reinforcing our commitment to the Indo-Pacific,<\/strong>” a region where the People\u2019s Republic of China is highly active and present.<\/span><\/span> Given today\u2019s world, \u201cin an increasingly complex security environment, we continue to invest in multilateralism and strong, democratic partnerships,\u201d the EPP MEP said. The chair of the Committee on International Trade<\/a>, the socialist Bernd Lange<\/strong>: \u201cAt times of geopolitical rivalry and protectionism, the EU stands for certainty, predictability and economic opportunities for its workers, producers and consumers.\u201d For the EU, he insists, “expanding our network of reliable partners is an economic and geopolitical necessity<\/strong>.” A clear reference to Donald Trump\u2019s America. Now, Lange concludes, “It is crucial that the European Parliament and Council have their say soon on this free trade agreement.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The free trade agreement between the parties has also been endorsed by the European Parliament on the grounds of its geostrategic importance. The priority for businesses and politicians now is to ratify and implement it swiftly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":448487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25707],"tags":[25855,26298,26279,26752,31520,25755,26280,25929,26283],"class_list":["post-448510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-world-politics","tag-agriculture-en","tag-automotive-en","tag-trade-en","tag-imprese-en","tag-eu-australia-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-export-en","tag-free-exchange-en","tag-importinto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448511,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448510\/revisions\/448511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}