Australia exports 98% of its lithium used for making batteries to China and is a world producer of critical materials including copper and nickel. Now the European Union is seeking a new free trade agreement to import more of those those energy-transition materials. Australia wants to see greater international investment.
A free-trade agreement (FTA) between Australia and the European Union would encourage closer ties on critical minerals at a crucial time for the energy transition, Bloomberg quoted Europe’s Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson as saying during her visit to Australia.
Talks between the two sides discontinued last year. They are also seeking cooperation on critical materials – like lithium, copper and nickel.
Simson said an FTA agreement would be a ‘strong enabler’ for joint work on supply of key raw materials.
“Just as the EU is keen to secure supply chains through investments in critical minerals mining and prospecting, the Australian industry is calling out for more investment,” Simson told an audience at the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday (April 8).
Australia is the biggest global lithium producer, but barely sends any energy-transition metals to Europe. In Australia’s last fiscal year ended June 2023, the nation sent 98 percent of its lithium spodumene to China, according to government figures.
Simson said she had been in conversations with Australia’s Resources Minister Madeleine King for an agreement on critical minerals, and that there would be more news “soon.”
But she added that the EU wanted to resume discussions on a free trade agreement as well. “I have been consistently telling my Australian counterparts that we want to re-engage, get back to the negotiating table,” she said.
