EU-Australia Trade Relations – Current Stage and Future Challenges
EU-Australia Trade Relations – Current Stage and Future Challenges

Summary/Abstract: Faced with a visible stagnation in negotiations within the WTO, the EU prioritized bilateral trade agreements. In the EU’s newly-developed trade and investment strategy from 2015 named “Trade for All”, Australia’s significance as Europe’s close partner sharing European values and playing an important role both in the Pacific region and multilateral forums was clearly emphasized. The main assumptions of this strategy have become the starting point for taking more specific actions in the field of regulating trade relations between the EU and Australia in the form of the forthcoming “comprehensive and high-quality FTA.” Moreover, the current climate in the world trade (connected with e.g. American protectionism) is the cause of the EU’s interest in developing partnership with other, more predictable trade partners. Hence, the agreement planned by the EU would contribute to the stimulation of reciprocal exchange, which is of great importance bearing in mind Australia’s successfully signed FTAs with other countries, including those with EU’s key partners. Finally, the question of Brexit is not without significance in this context.

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