00:00It's an over 20-hour flight to Sydney, but the price at the end might just be worth it.
00:05European Commission President is in Australia right now,
00:08trying to push a long-delayed free trade deal across the finish line.
00:12With US tariffs rising and trade tensions heating up with China,
00:16both Brussels and Canberra urgently need reliable partners.
00:20Because trade is not just economics, it is power.
00:23And that's quite interesting, so let's take a look.
00:27The economic ties are already massive.
00:30The EU is currently Australia's third-largest trading partner,
00:34exporting almost 28 billion euros more in goods than in imports.
00:39And for the EU, Australia ranks just 20th.
00:42But this deal is not about selling more machinery.
00:45It is about securing the green transition,
00:47a goal that the current war in Iran has turned into a matter of sheer energy security.
00:52Australia is the world's third-largest producer of rare herbs.
00:57And Brussels wants to remove trade barriers to critical raw materials like lithium and cobalt,
01:02to limit its reliance on China.
01:05But the big sticking point is agriculture.
01:08Fearing a repeat of the Mercosur farmer protests,
01:11Brussels is putting a hard ceiling on Australian meat imports,
01:15demanding strict quotas and full protection for European food names.
01:19But hey, there's also a bigger picture.
01:22Brussels is on a roll sealing recent pacts with Mercosur,
01:26India, Mexico, Switzerland and Indonesia,
01:30to become the ultimate reliable partner.
01:33And according to Wondelajen, the message is clear.
01:36The world wants to trade with Europe.
01:39And if you're thinking that there is somebody missing in this beautiful picture,
01:42it is the United States, which happens to be the EU's biggest trading partner.
01:46For now, European lawmakers are trying to implement a limited trade deal.
01:51But between Donald Trump's 15% tariffs and recent US Supreme Court's chaos,
01:57progress is slow.
01:59And one would say that the biggest obstacle to an EU-US trade deal
02:03seems to be the US itself.
02:06The United States has had 65%.
02:07So thank 1, perdeu second place.
02:08And the European farms.
02:08The 편 country which doesn't stall in the United States,
02:09But if you're thinking that you're worth it,
02:09Absolutely.
02:09So it's something that doesn't belong to America.
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