On March 24^th 2026, EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, concluded free trade agreement negotiations during a meeting of the leaders in Canberra.

Trade negotiations between the EU and Australia began in 2018 but collapsed in 2023, as the Australians were dissatisfied with the EU’s market access offer for beef and lamb. The free trade agreement and Security and Defence Partnership (SDP) was agreed in March 2026 following a revival of negotiations in 2025.

The key outcomes from the trade agreement for the EU are:

• Removing over 99% of tariffs on EU goods exports to Australia, thus cutting some €1 billion a year in duties for companies of all sizes;
• Opening of the Australian services market in key sectors, including financial services and telecommunications;
• Providing greater access for EU companies to Australian government procurement contracts;
• Setting ambitious rules on data flows prohibiting data localisation requirements; and
• Securing supply chains of critical raw materials (CRMs) by lowering tariffs on imports and opening investment opportunities.

What was agreed on agri-food?

The key outcomes for agri-food include the elimination of tariffs on all EU agri-food exports to Australia, including key export products such as wine, chocolate, sugar confectionary and ice cream. The majority of these tariffs are expected to be eliminated from day 1 of implementation of the agreement, with exceptions for more sensitive products, like cheese, which will be see tariff elimination phased in over 3-years.

The EU will also be opening its market to Australian agri-food exports, however this includes phased in tariff rate quotas and sustainability conditionality for the some of the EU’s most sensitive products, including beef, lamb, goat meat, sugar, dairy, and rice. These tariff rates quotas include:

Product	Quantity	Remarks
Beef	30,600 t CWE	16,830 t duty-free & ‘grass-fed’ 13,770 t reduced duty of 7.5% Phased in over 10 years with 1/3 of volume granted at entry into force, with further gradual implementation after 5 years. ⁓ 0.5% of EU domestic consumption and <2% of Australia’s global beef exports.
Sheep and goat meat	25,000 t CWE	27% reserved for frozen meat Duty-free & ‘grass-fed’ (not raised in feedlots) Phased in over 7 years, with 1/3 of volume granted at entry into force. ⁓ 4% of EU consumption
Raw cane sugar for refining	35,000 t	Duty-free & subject to certification by a private sustainability scheme. ⁓0.3% of EU consumption
Skimmed Milk Powder	8,000 t	Tariff-rate quota ⁓1.1% of EU consumption
Butter	5,000 t	Tariff-rate quota ⁓0.25% of EU consumption
Whey	2,000 t	Tariff-rate quota
Rice	8,500 t	Tariff-rate quota 5,000 t granted at entry into force, with phasing in over 5 years ⁓0.3% of EU consumption
Wheat gluten	20,000 t	0% duty
Sweetcorn	800 t	0% duty
Bulk rhum	750 hl	0% duty
Derivative starches	1,000 t	0% duty
Ethanol	10,000 t	0% duty

To be noted that as part of the overall package the agreement includes a free standing bilateral safeguard mechanism allowing the EU to take measures to protect sensitive European products and their producers in the event of a surge in imports from Australia causing injury to the EU market

Geographical indicators (GIs)

The EU has agreed 165 agricultural and food GIs and 231 spirit drinks (e.g. Comté, Irish Whiskey) GIs with Australia as part of the agreement, with Australia becoming a ‘GI like-minded’ partner with the EU. Moreover, the agreement builds upon a 2008 Agreement between Australia and the EU Community on Trade in Wine, by introducing 50 new GI protections for wines.

The protection for ‘prosecco’ will allow its continued use in Australia as a varietal name but will restrict Australia product from being exported under the name. This will be phased in over a 10-year transition period following the entry of the agreement into force.

Moreover, grandfathering and lengthy phase-out periods have been secured for a limited number of terms, including Feta, Romano and Gruyere. Australia has protected it right to continue producing product under the name ‘parmesan’ and ‘kransky’.

Reactions from farming lobbyists

Copa-Cogeca responded to the announcement by saying that “in a post-Mercosur context, the cumulative impact of successive trade agreements makes these concessions unacceptable.”. Copa-Cogeca feel that the effect of the agreement is likely to “only worsen existing vulnerabilities and push many EU family farms to the breaking point.”

The Australian National Farmers Federation (NFF) has expressed that the agreement is “extremely disappointing” and offers no “commercially meaningful agricultural market access gains”. NFF criticises the EU’s CAP support as subsidy reliance and suggest that the deal does not truly reflect free-flowing two-way trade.

Next steps

Further details on GI protections and TRQ management will be available when the full text is published. We would now expect that the agreement would go to the Council and European Parliament for scrutiny and approval before the deal can be ratified.