Beef over EU deal boils over as security ties touted

Andrew Brown and Farid Farid | March 25, 2026

Australia’s red-meat sector has been urged to get behind a contentious trade pact with the European Union as the bloc’s head hails shared security goals.

The parties struck an agreement on Tuesday after years of negotiations to expand trade across a range of areas, while also agreeing to step up co-operation on defence.

Australia will remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which hits car makers such as BMW and Mercedes along with producers of goods including fashion products, food and drinks.

EU tariffs will be removed on imports of a wide range of Australian goods, including critical minerals, manufactured items and many dairy products.

In the final leg of her whirlwind tour, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the future prosperity of the free-trade agreement could only be guaranteed by strong defence ties.

“The security needs of Europe and Australia are closer than ever before,” she told diplomats and business leaders at NSW parliament on Wednesday.

“We both want the conflict in the (Persian) Gulf to de-escalate and we both want to avoid new escalations elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific.”

She described the vast region as the “security cockpit” of the world, warning several times about the rise of China and its maritime incursions.

“We are reliable and predictable – with Europe, what you see is what you get,” Ms Von Der Leyen impressed upon her audience, including representatives of French defence firm Thales.

Farmers have been left furious by the free-trade agreement, with some saying it delivers no commercially meaningful market access despite an increase in quotas.

After years of pushing for expanded exports, the nation’s red meat industry denounced the deal, labelling it the worst free-trade agreement the nation had signed.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said the agreement would still mean expanded access to Europe for Australian red meat.

“We’ve got an 800 per cent increase in our access to the European market as a result of this agreement,” he said.

“I’m asking the cattle industry to come on board. This is a vital moment for them.”

Under the agreement, 35,000 tonnes of red meat per year would be sent to the EU, a quantity Senator Farrell said was worth billions of dollars.

The deal fell well short of the amounts producers wanted, National Farmers Federation president Hamish McIntyre said.

“This is a long-term, generational agreement … it’s for 10, 20, 30, 40 years,” he said.

“We have locked ourselves into very low volumes for a long period of time. That’s where the great frustration is coming from.”

Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Bonnie Skinner said the deal, for sheep meat, was largely unchanged from the one Australia rejected in 2023.

“The increase in access is small and, critically, it does not unlock real commercial opportunities,” she said. 

“For a premium market like the EU, this falls short of what was needed.”

It was a different story for Australia’s prosecco producers, who have been popping corks in celebration of the deal.

Despite pressure from European winemakers, Australian producers will be allowed to keep using the term “prosecco” for domestic sales, but will have to phase out the name over the next decade for exports.

Katherine Brown, a fourth-generation winemaker with Brown Brothers, toasted the deal after years of anxiously waiting for negotiations to finalise. 

“It’s fantastic that we’ve been told the prosecco name for that grape variety will retain domestically in Australia,” she told AAP.