Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025, Customs Tariff Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025
Mr RICK WILSON (O'Connor) (17:13): I rise today to support the Customs Amendment (Australia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2025. I applaud Minister Farrell for finalising the work that was initiated by then trade minister Tehan in March 2022, when he initiated the discussions around this agreement. Minister Farrell has carried through and finished off that work.
Trade is such an important issue for Australia, as a middle ranking world economy and power. We're currently in an environment where some of the world's largest trading nations are engaging in a trade war, so this agreement is very timely and reinforces the importance of countries of our stature to have open and free trade with our partners around the world. So, once again, it's very good timing.
I want to make the point that one in five Australian jobs is trade related. On average, export businesses employ more staff, pay higher wages and achieve higher productivity than nonexporters. Between 2013 and 2022 the Liberal and National government finalised 11 trade agreements, including the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement and the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.
We implemented nine trade agreements while in government, lifting the share of trade covered by FTAs from 27 per cent in 2013 to 70 per cent by 2022. That figure has now lifted to almost 80 per cent, as the India and UK FTAs were ratified. The United Arab Emirates is a great friend of our country, not only from a trade and investment perspective but also they host a very important military base for our nation.
To that end, I have worked very hard, from my perspective, to build the relationship and friendships, particularly with former ambassador Mr Al Subousi, who we hosted in WA. We visited Peel Feedlot of the live export trade and spent a great day discussing mutually beneficial trade relationships. I am also looking forward to continuing that friendship with the new ambassador, His Excellency Dr Altaffag.
We have already met on a couple of occasions, and I'm looking forward to continuing that relationship. The United Arab Emirates is Australia's largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East, with nearly $10 billion of two-way trade in 2023—you would be familiar with those numbers—and $20.6 billion in two-way investment. Trade is very important, but so is the investment component of that, and the UAE has a number of sovereign wealth funds.
I think the number mentioned by the previous speaker was $1.5 trillion. That is a large amount of capital looking for a productive home, and Australia can provide many great investment opportunities for the United Arab Emirates. My interest in trade with the Middle East stems particularly from my electorate and the produce that we produce—be it agricultural produce, minerals or world-class tourism product.
Our farmers exporting to the UAE will directly benefit from the removal of import tariffs as well as preferential treatment and access to their markets. The tariffs on all dairy products will be eliminated on entry into force, and this will give our $3 billion dairy export industry duty-free access to the UAE. We are a big producer of red meat not only in my electorate but throughout Western Australia.
Duties on the Australian red meat imports to the UAE, worth around $600 million annually, will be eliminated on entry into force. The UAE is Australia's fourth largest market for sheepmeat, with Australia exporting $332.9 million worth to the UAE annually, and that makes it our second largest agricultural export to that market. Australia exported $246 million worth of beef to the UAE in 2024, which represents our largest market in the Middle East.
The tariff on bottled wine, which is another great product of my electorate, will be reduced to 45 per cent from the current applied tariff of 50 per cent, and this will provide Australia with better access to the UAE than any other competitor. Canola seed—which is produced in great quantities in my electorate, and we're shaping up to have a pretty good season again—is the largest ag export to the United Arab Emirates.
The United Arab Emirates will eliminate its five per cent tariff on entry into force, and this will give our largest agricultural export to the UAE of nearly $500 million in 2024 duty-free access to this market. Other grains and oilseeds, which represent around $150 million, will fall to a zero tariff immediately. Pulses, which are an important food in the Middle East, will have the five per cent tariff removed, and this will benefit the $140 million worth of pulses that we send each year.
A five per cent tariff on horticulture will be eliminated, and that will benefit the $109 million worth of horticultural goods we export to the UAE annually. For industry, aluminium duties will be eliminated immediately on many products, and the remaining duties will be eliminated over three to five years. This will create new opportunities for Australia's $7.1 billion worth of aluminium exports.
In O'Connor we are the pre-eminent gold producers in the country. The tariff on our gold exports to the UAE has been locked at zero, preventing the UAE from increasing it to the previous limit of 15 per cent. If anybody has been to Dubai and been to the gold market, you will be well aware that gold is a very important consumer product in the Emirates.
It's very much seen as a status symbol and a sign of financial security for families, particularly as part of a dowry when people are getting married. They consume a lot of our gold. Tariffs on vehicle parts will be eliminated.
This is a major benefit for our vehicle-parts exports market, which is worth around $291 million annually. I can't let mention of trade with the Middle East pass without mentioning the live sheep export trade, which was also an important part of our trade with Middle Eastern countries, particularly the UAE. I visited last May and visited the feedlots, abattoirs and processing plants.
I spoke to consumers and the people who ran the industry in the UAE. They are disappointed that that market option will be removed. Food security is a huge issue for Middle Eastern countries—not just the UAE but more generally.
I'll touch on that in a minute. It is disappointing that, while Minister Farrell, in his press release, talks about diversification of opportunities for our producers and so on, the government is in fact reducing those opportunities for sheep producers from WA. But we will continue to provide the UAE with top-quality sheepmeat, and they will source their live sheep, which they buy for cultural reasons, from other parts of the world.
Sadly, those other parts of the world don't have anything like the regulations around animal welfare that we do, so, ultimately, it is a net loss for animal welfare for sheep around the world. Moving on to those other Arab countries, I say to Minister Farrell: congratulations on landing the UAE free trade agreement. The big one, of course, in the Middle East is the Gulf Cooperation Council free trade agreement, which kicked off in 2007; it has not moved a great deal since then.
The countries involved in the GCC are Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait—and, of course, the UAE, which we've done a bilateral agreement with. There are great opportunities, as I said. The Middle Eastern countries—particularly Saudi Arabia, which is a very large country by population—are very concerned about their food security.
Australia is well positioned to provide those countries with that food security. I visited Kuwait last year. They are the largest importers of live sheep but they also import a lot of chilled meat.
Interestingly enough, every loaf of bread, every flour product in that country, is produced from Australian wheat. Australia is a really important partner to many of these countries. If we are consistent with our rules and regulations, we can provide food security, which is, as I said, critically important for our Middle Eastern partners.
I look forward, now that the UAE deal has been signed and landed, to Minister Farrell moving on to the GCC free trade agreement and getting better access and more consistent arrangements with our Middle Eastern partners in the rest of the Gulf.