Sky News Afternoon Agenda

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Kieran Gilbert: Welcome back to the program. Joining me live in the studio is the Assistant Minister for Trade, Senator Tim Ayres. Thanks for your time...

Kieran Gilbert: I want to ask you about the frustration reported in the AFR yesterday from China. This was Andrew Tillett reporting, that Chinese officials are growing frustrated that the Prime Minister has not yet locked in a date to visit China despite some of those trade barriers being removed. How far are we away from that happening?

Assistant Minister: Well, the Prime Minister’s office will make announcements when it’s appropriate. I know that an invitation has been extended. The invitation is a very welcome development, and a visit will happen when it’s appropriate for the visit to happen. We have as a government been working in a really calm and methodical way at stabilising the broader strategic relationship and as of course you’ve seen from the work that’s been led by Trade Minister Don Farrell, working steadily through the list of trade impediments and making some progress. But there is still progress to be made, and they are all important issues. There should not be any impediments in the way of trade between the two countries. We should be honouring the agreements and the arrangements between the two countries and the multilateral obligations. There is a pathway ahead working through the questions around barley in particular. I am very keen to see progress in all of those areas.

Kieran Gilbert: Is that –

Assistant Minister: But announcements in terms of the Prime Minister’s travel itinerary are really a matter for the Prime Minister.

Kieran Gilbert: But on barley and so on, it sounds like more progress will be made soon I’m told. As for the broader relationship, Scott Morrison, the former Prime Minister, met with the Chinese Ambassador. So, another sign of a thaw, not just with the government but across the Parliament.

Assistant Trade Minister: Well, it’s certainly open to individual Members of Parliament and former Prime Ministers to meet with the diplomatic community. It’s a very regular occurrence here in Canberra. It’s not a surprising development.

Kieran Gilbert: And finally, the EU, that deal. Is that going to fall over completely or is there some hope of compromise on those geographical indicators, things like, you know, feta cheese and prosecco that the EU –

Assistant Minister: Well, before we come to the problems let’s talk about the opportunity here – 450 million people, soon will be half a billion people, it’s our third largest market. Enormous opportunities in goods and services trade, access to big government procurement markets, investment, critical minerals, there’s enormous opportunity for all of us.

Kieran Gilbert: If you get it passed.

Assistant Minister: For citizens of the EU and Australia, if we get it done. But in order to get it done we’re going to need to secure commercially meaningful access for a series of these agricultural products, red meat in particular and wine and a range of these other products. That matters to Australian farmers. We are deadly serious about achieving a commercially meaningful outcome here and we’ll keep working with the farming community and with the negotiation team of our friends in the European Union.

Kieran Gilbert: Minister, appreciate your time.

Assistant Minister: Good on you, Kieran.

Kieran Gilbert: Talk to you soon.