Abstract/Summary

This chapter focuses on one challenging dimension of Australia’s changing, and complex, relationship with the European Union —the EU’s support for its farm sector— from the formation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the late 1950s to the current interest of the two parties in the negotiation of a Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement. Two unanswered questions underpin the discussion. First, did the United Kingdom’s accession to the EEC, and in particular its adoption of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), have a lasting impact on Australia’s agricultural exports to Europe, or did it merely accelerate an inevitable process of relative decline? Second, if the forty-plus years of the UK’s membership of the EU did fundamentally impact Australia’s long-term agri-food exports, could the UK’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit) now unwind the process?