Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As chair, along with my good friend Senator Andrew McLachlan, of the Parliamentary Friends of the United Arab Emirates, I would like to take a moment to highlight the successful conclusion of negotiations between Australia and the UAE for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement—

which I'm sure Senator Helen Polley, as a good friend of that parliamentary friendship group, backs 100 per cent.

This agreement is a landmark announcement. It's one that we should all be very proud of, as it represents our country's first trade and investment agreement with a Middle Eastern country. The deal will remove over 99 per cent of tariffs on Australian products, saving exporters and businesses around $135 million in the first year. It will also increase exports by around $700 million each year and fortify two-way investment between our two great countries.

The UAE is already Australia's largest trading partner in the region, with nearly $10 billion worth of two-way trade last year, and this agreement will only unlock the potential of this relationship further and unlock more business opportunities. This also includes sectors of our economy that underpin energy transition, such as critical minerals. The deal will also improve access to an important part of the market, particularly for our Australian farmers and food producers, for products such as sheep meat, seafood, dairy, beef, lentils, nuts and steel. This is particularly critical, given that Australia exports around 70 per cent of the agricultural products that it produces.

With one in four Australian jobs reliant on trade, I want to commend trade minister Don Farrell and his department and its many officials for achieving such a fantastic outcome for our Aussie farmers, producers, businesses and exporters, and for continuing to diversify Australia's trade relationships across the world. Well done, everyone.