Trade deal will deliver sugar hit
QUEENSLAND sugar farmers will hit one of their biggest sweet spots today under a deal that gives them premium export access to one of the world’s largest-growing economies.
More jobs and higher wages will today be promised by Malcolm Turnbull, who will announce a free-trade agreement with Peru worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Australian farmers and businesses.
Under the deal, 99 per cent of tariffs that Australians exporters face will be eliminated.
Lobby group Canegrowers estimate phase one of the deal – based on current raw sugar prices – will deliver an extra $13.5 million to cane farmers.
It means farmers will be able to export about 30,000 of sugar to Peru from the first year, increasing to 90,000 tonnes in year 18.
It comes as Queensland sugar farmers battle soft economic growth and cyclones.
There is also hope that farmers could get another sweetener under the TransPacific Partnership, with 11 member states potentially signing-off on a deal this week.
The PM, who is in Vietnam for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, said the Peru FTA would also open doors for meat, dairy and seafood producers, pharmaceutical and medical supplies and services industries.
“This is an excellent outcome. The export deal will generate economic growth and Australian jobs for decades to come. Our businesses, farmers and families are the big winners,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
“The equation is simple – more trade means more exports; more exports means more jobs and higher wages.”
The deal, struck by Queensland’s own Trade Minister Steve Ciobo, is the first freetrade agreement negotiated and signed within one year.
“Peru is one of the fastestgrowing economies in the world, with an average growth rate of 5.9 per cent over the last decade,” he said.
“The access we’ve secured for Australian sugar is more than any other sugar exporting country has achieved in the last twenty years and is equivalent to roughly 30 per cent of Peru’s imports.”
Canegrowers chairman Paul Schembri said the FTA would enable Australian exporters to establish and grow commercial relationships with refiners in Peru.
The deal will be operational once Australia and Peru finalise legislation.