Sweden vows to push hard for Europe free-trade agreement

Sweden is pushing countries across Europe to cement the free-trade agreement with Australia, but has cautioned that the deal won’t be struck before July.

Swedish Minister for International Development Co-operation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell, left, Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel in Sydney on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

Sweden is pushing countries across Europe to cement the free-trade agreement with Australia, but has cautioned that the deal won’t be struck before it passes over presidency of the council of the EU in July.

The comments from Sweden’s Minister for Inter­national Development Co-operation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell in an interview with The Australian appear to bring the mid-year deadline aimed for by the EU and Australia into question.

When asked about when the deal would be struck, Mr Forssell said the FTA would “hopefully” be formalised when Spain formally took over the next six-month presidential term, which kicks off on July 1, but stressed the process was complex with 27 different member states.

“There are some states that are perhaps a bit more reluctant ... with the agrifood sector,” he said. “Some member states in Europe are relying on the agrifood sector. Those challenges can be solved; it just takes some time. We are doing everything we can to give it a push forward; hopefully it will be signed during the next presidency when Spain takes over.”

It followed the European Commission’s Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net Zero Age, released earlier this month, indicating it wished to “conclude negotiations” with Australia by the middle of the year.

The FTA has faced several hurdles, including backlash from France at the Morrison government decision to tear up the submarine contract and battles over naming rights for products such as prosecco and feta

Mr Forssell said he was confident such concerns could be overcome and Sweden would use the rest of its presidency to make what progress it could on the FTA as possible. “I’d love to have the FTA with Australia as soon as possible,” he said.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said: “We appreciate Sweden’s strong support, as the current president of the council of the EU, to conclude trade negoti­ations by mid-year.”

Mr Forssell – who was in Australia for three days to accompany Crown Princess Victoria and her husband, Prince Daniel, on a whirlwind trip – said Sweden wanted to expand trade with Australia, pointing to areas including mining and defence.

Having recently unearthed the largest critical minerals deposit in Europe, Mr Forssell said there was significant potential for Swedish companies to turn their attention to Australia’s significant deposits of rare earths yet to be explored.

“I know many Swedish companies are ready to invest in Australia and really having a strong Australian footprint,” he said.

Half the cars on the road in Sweden are already electric, with Mr Forssell indicating Sweden wanted to ensure it was not reliant on any single country for the supply of resources.

“What happened in Ukraine is an eye-opener for countries in Europe and the importance of not having dependencies to countries you don’t want to be dependent on,” he said.

Mr Forssell said Sweden also “stood ready” to help Australia fill the capability gap between its Collins-class submarines – designed by Swedish company Saab – and nuclear-powered submarines coming via AUKUS.