One option that is closing for New Caledonia: the EU-Australia free trade agreement

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is contacting you again this week following the announcement made at the end of March of the potential free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union (see Free trade agreement signed between the EU and Australia | vie-publique.fr ).

Although this agreement has not yet entered into force , as it must first be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU and also ratified by Australia, its effective implementation would nonetheless close a door to New Caledonia’s accession to its full sovereignty.

As stated previously in several of our articles, France only knows 2 ways to negotiate: by force or by interest.

The integration of New Caledonia into these negotiations would have allowed the latter to free itself from French tutelage by benefiting from the potential support of Australia and the European Union, which could have put pressure on France in view of the expected gains from such an agreement.

As the article points out, the trade agreement between the EU and Australia would allow Europe to benefit from nearly one billion euros in savings on exports, due to the elimination of customs duties. The EU also estimates an increase of nearly 33% per year over 10 years in its exports to Australia, resulting in a gain of approximately 4 billion euros in GDP by 2030.

While this option is not yet completely off the table , it seems highly compromised , unfortunately leaving only the option of force.

The State’s determination to force through its proposed Bougival-Elysée-Oudinot agreement is a perfect example of this.

On this Easter day, and despite the recommendations of the Protestant community gathered in Lifou, in the Tingeting tribe, to go towards the other, not to retreat into one’s positions, to listen to the other in order to try to move forward, we unfortunately fear that these words will remain pious and that new clashes are to be expected soon.

L’association APROFED