{"id":17774,"date":"2026-03-23T17:46:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/eu-chief-arrives-in-australia-with-eyes-on-free-trade-deal\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:46:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:46:41","slug":"eu-chief-arrives-in-australia-with-eyes-on-free-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/eu-chief-arrives-in-australia-with-eyes-on-free-trade-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"EU chief arrives in Australia with eyes on free trade deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EU chief Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Australia on Monday, with hopes a free trade deal can be struck after years of negotiations.<\/p>\n

It is the EU chief’s first trip to Australia since taking office and comes as the bloc and import-reliant nation navigate renewed energy vulnerability sparked by the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

She arrived in Sydney on Monday for a meeting with Australia’s head of the state, the governor-general, and a traditional welcoming ceremony.<\/p>\n

From Sydney, the EU chief will head to Canberra, where she is expected to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and address the country’s parliament.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen is joined by EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic — sparking speculation the two sides may finally put pen to paper on a long-awaited free trade deal.<\/p>\n

Both are still ironing out the details of the agreement, with improved access to the European market for Australia’s lamb and beef a key source of contention.<\/p>\n

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Australia has previously said it could drop a luxury car tax on European vehicles in return for greater access to the EU agriculture market.<\/p>\n

The country’s use of geographical indicator names for cheese and wine products was also a sticking point.<\/p>\n

Australia’s largest export market is China and the United States is its largest source of investment.<\/p>\n

But Canberra has redoubled efforts to diversify export markets for farmers since a 2020 dispute with Beijing saw agriculture exports blocked for several years, and then last year’s global imposition of U.S. trade tariffs.<\/p>\n

The European Union is Australia’s third largest two-way trading partner and second largest source of foreign investment.<\/p>\n

Trade Minister Don Farrell last week said that an EU deal would add Aus$10 billion (U.S.$7.1 billion) in trade for Australia in the first year.<\/p>\n

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“They are potentially our second largest trading partner if we can pull this off, and we’ve just got to get over those last few hurdles,” he told Sky News Australia.<\/p>\n

Front and centre in meetings will also likely be the war in the Middle East, which has sent oil prices soaring.<\/p>\n

In Canberra, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said on Monday the world faced an energy crisis not seen in decades if the conflict was not resolved.<\/p>\n

And Von der Leyen this month said the conflict had served as a “stark reminder” of the continent’s vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Australia — which is heavily reliant on fuel from abroad — has also felt the pressure from the global energy squeeze.<\/p>\n

While conceding that some petrol stations had run out of fuel, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Monday the country was a “long way” from rationing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t© 2026 AFP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

EU chief arrives in Australia with eyes on free trade deal<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Australia on Monday, with hopes a free trade deal can be struck after years of negotiations. It is the EU chief’s first trip to Australia since taking office and comes as the bloc and import-reliant nation navigate renewed energy vulnerability sparked by the war in the Middle…<\/p>\n

Read More “EU chief arrives in Australia with eyes on free trade deal”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}