The Australia-Taiwan 19th Agricultural Working Group Meeting was successfully held in Brisbane in Februray, where the Taiwan delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture engaged in in-depth discussions with Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry on key forward-looking topics such as agricultural priority policies, trade market access, climate change response, AI automation, and agricultural drone technologies. Together, they are working to promote agricultural innovation and sustainable development.
Ambassador Douglas Hsu emphasized in his opening speech that Taiwan and Australia have a close agricultural partnership. In 2024, Taiwan became Australia's sixth-largest export market, with total bilateral agricultural trade exceeding 1.24 billion AUD. Among these, the import value of frozen beef saw a nearly 30% increase. However, due to the absence of a free trade agreement between the two sides, Australian agricultural products still face high tariffs when exported to Taiwan, with dairy products subject to tariffs as high as 30%, and fruits and vegetables facing 7.5% tariffs.
Ambassador Hsu highlighted that 2025, when Australia assumes the chairmanship of the CPTPP, will be a key moment to deepen Taiwan-Australia economic and trade cooperation. He called on the Australian side to support Taiwan's accession to the CPTPP, as this would not only lower tariffs and facilitate agricultural trade but also strengthen regional economic integration, bringing substantial economic benefits to Australian agriculture.
