Vince Macron: EU trade talks with Australia canceled, while the Canberra minister was flying
Discussions on trade agreements between the European Union and Australia were suspended as the Australian trade minister was flying to Brussels.
The decision is the consequence of the cancellation of the order for conventional French submarines for 90 billion US dollars (54 billion euros), following the signing of the AUKUS agreement with the United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) last month. The agreement includes the construction of nuclear submarines under US and UK leadership.
Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said in a statement to Reuters on 1 October: "I will meet with my EU counterpart Valdis Dombrovskis next week to discuss the twelfth round of negotiations, which will now take place in November. instead of October ".
"A free trade agreement is in the interest of Australia and the European Union and will strengthen our relations which are based on a shared commitment to democracy, human rights, the rule of law and economic openness," he said. added.
"We understand the French reaction to our undersea decision, but ultimately each nation must act in its own national interest, which is what Australia did."
Last month, the Australian government canceled the troubled multi-billion dollar Future Submarine program with French defense contractor Naval Group.
The original 2016 plan called for Naval to convert 12 of its Barracuda-class nuclear submarines into diesel-electric-powered Attack-class submarines equipped with US weapon systems. Unfortunately, the French project was plagued by continued delays and excessive costs, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealing that $ 2.4 billion (€ 1.3 billion) had already been invested in the project.
The signing of AUKUS saw Australians cancel the deal – which Morrison said was federal government law – and instead explores the acquisition of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines from the United States or the United Kingdom.
French ministers reacted angrily to the agreement by accusing Australia and the United States of "stabbing him in the back" and recalling his ambassadors from Canberra and Washington DC, which is quite rare in diplomatic relations between the two sides.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also questioned whether the incident could affect a potential trade deal with Australia.
The diplomatic climate then eased between Washington and Paris after a telephone call from Biden, but remains tense with Canberra. Of course the Indo-Pacific strategy of the EU, that is French, because the others have no bases in the area, starts badly, with potential economic sanctions against an ally country. We do not believe that EU diplomacy would have been interested and protective even if a similar incident happened to Italy. Just think of the damage caused to our companies by the crisis in relations with Russia.
Eventually the post-Brexit UK will have a trade deal before the “Mighty” EU.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new articles of Economic Scenarios.
The article Vince Macron: EU trade talks with Australia canceled, while the Canberra minister was flying comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/vince-macron-cancellati-i-colloqui-commerciali-ue-con-laustralia-mentre-il-ministro-di-canberra-era-in-volo/ on Sat, 02 Oct 2021 17:08:45 +0000.