Aussie farmers miss out on a third of trade opportunities due to farm subsidies

Australian farmers are missing out on a third of trade opportunities due to farm subsidies and trade barriers, a new report has found.

AUSTRALIAN farmers are losing 15 per cent of their farm income and missing out on almost 30 per cent more export opportunities due to agricultural subsidies and trade barriers.

A study, released this month by AgriFutures Australia, has found domestic farm subsidies have increased among OECD countries from 21 per cent to 23 per cent since 2014.

Those measures, combined with tariffs and tariffs quotas, were lowering Australian net farm incomes, and reducing farm exports by 29 per cent.

The report showed China topped the list for subsidies between 2016-18 at $US202 billion — almost as much as all other OECD nations combined. European Union farmers received $US86 billion; Japan, $US39 billion; the US, $US36 billion: Indonesia, $US35 billion.

Trade barriers, however, remain the biggest threat to Australia’s competitiveness.

“It therefore continues to be in Australia’s interest to vigorously pursue cuts to agricultural market access barriers abroad wherever possible multi­laterally, regionally and bilaterally,”   the   report stated.

“The (listed) results vindicate Australia’s efforts over the past decade to sign FTAs with China, Japan, Korea (and Indonesia), and to pursue its current negotiations aimed at FTAs with the EU, since it is those economies whose subsidies and trade barriers are the most damaging to Australian agricultural and overall economic interests.”

Report author Kym Anderson stressed, however, that tariff barriers should not be Australia’s sole focus, given domestic subsidies had become more significant in the past decade.

Australia’s red meat, wheat and dairy industries are the most affected by global farm policies, with rice and cotton affected to a lesser extent.

The report also found Australia was falling behind the rest of the world when it came to developing natural capital markets, and incentives for farmers to look after the environment.

AgriFutures Australia senio­r business development manager Jen Medway said the findings were timely given the reliance on trade to increase agriculture’s growth in Australi­a.