Sweden pushes for Australian trade agreement
Stockholm – Sweden will, at a ministerial meeting in Brussels on Thursday, initiate negotiations for a trade agreement with Australia again.
“We want new trade routes for our companies, it is especially important now,” says Minister for Foreign Trade Benjamin Dousa.
A free trade agreement between the EU and Australia would be an important signal in the deteriorating trade climate in the world created by the Trump administration’s tariff shock, he says:
“It would send a very clear signal that when the USA turns inward and raises tariffs, then Europe and Sweden open up.”
A draft agreement is essentially already prepared from the previous trade negotiations between the EU and Australia, which were suspended in 2023.
Sweden, as a small and export-dependent country, has traditionally been one of the more free trade-friendly EU countries. Benjamin Dousa hopes that in the current situation, it may be possible to convince more EU countries of the benefits of free trade.
(May 14)
