The EU and NZ wrapped up the ninth round of negotiations in early December without a revised offer from the Europeans on agricultural market access.
The EU’s previous offer – which insiders say offers very little if any improvement on current access to European consumer markets – had been previously dismissed by NZ negotiators.
Former special agricultural trade envoy Mike Petersen says the Europeans have been using the uncertainty surrounding the post-Brexit trading relationship with the UK as a fig leaf for their miniscule market access offer in their talks with NZ since they began in 2018.
“Until they agreed on some sort of deal, we were not going to get any offers that were satisfactory because, to be fair, they did not know what the situation was going to be between themselves,” Peterson said.
“And I sort of had some sympathy for that point of view.”
But after years of trying, negotiators from the EU and the UK on Christmas Eve finally clinched a deal allowing free trade in goods to continue between the pair after the UK left the EU customs union on January 1.
Petersen said that removes the road block in talks between NZ and the EU, and also in NZ’s talks with the UK, which are at a much earlier stage.
“There are now no excuses for Europe and the UK to live up to their claims and to start making some offers that would align with their rhetoric about NZ being a favoured country and wanting to work with us in international trade,” he said.
Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva agreed.
“Everyone had wanted to finish it in a very short time frame and use that to highlight how the EU is able to negotiate high quality free trade agreements when this started two-and-a-half years ago,” Karapeeva said.
“I would certainly now expect the EU to pull up their socks and get to the negotiating table fairly smartly to take a serious look at this negotiation now that that the major stumbling block that was Brexit has been cleared away.”
Before the 1,246 page trade agreement can formally be adopted the UK and the remaining 27 member states of the EU must ratify the document through their parliaments.
While that could take some time, Petersen said the EU can’t use that as an excuse for further delaying improving its agricultural market access offer in its talks with NZ.
“There is enough certainty now,” he said.
“The European Commission wouldn’t have gone and agreed to what was put together without having confidence that it would be signed off by member states.
“We cannot wait for everything to happen in the world before we start talking seriously about a deal.
“A deal with NZ is long overdue because we are literally among a handful of countries in the world that does not have a deal with Europe … there are no excuses left.”
The tenth round of negotiations between the EU and NZ is due to begin later this month.
