By Gavin Jones

ROME (Reuters – Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan claimed on Friday that he would finalize a free trade accord with the European Union within the next year despite EU anger at Canberra’s decision to cancel a French submarine contract.

Brussels has postponed talks for the second round, scheduled to commence on October 12th and end in November. It did so because of solidarity with France following Australia’s cancellation of the multi-billion-dollar agreement that Paris considered the core of its Indo-Pacific policies.

It secretly agreed to construct at least eight submarines powered by nuclear technology with the U.S. as part of a trilateral security agreement between these three countries, which was announced last month.

Tehan is currently in Italy as part of the Group of 20 countries developed. In an interview, he told Reuters he didn’t worry about the delay and agreed that it was both the best interest of the two sides.

When he was asked when it would happen, he replied: “I think it’s probable the end-game won’t take some time. We’ll be looking at the end of next calendar year to conclude negotiations.”

He downplayed the harm to EU-Australian relations due to the submarine dispute and stated that he had “very constructive discussions” at this week’s meeting of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris with seven EU Ministers.

France is more resistant to repairing ties. They described Australia’s withdrawal from the naval agreement as a “stab in their back” and have so far rejected any attempts to reach an arrangement.

Tehan claimed that Australia has offered an open invitation to France.

He said, “The important thing is to sit down so Australia has an opportunity to fully explain our decision because it was in Australia’s national interest.”

France announced on October 6th that it will send back its ambassador to Australia in order to help restructure relations.

Tehan turned his attention to the environment. He rejected Australia’s accusations of not setting updated targets for reducing carbon emissions before next month’s United Nations Climate talks (COP 26), in Glasgow.

He stated that the Canberra Plan to Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050 “hopefully” was better than other plans.

Tehan stated that Australia is pushing for the G20 to address the largest contribution of farmer subsidies in carbon emission reductions.

He stated that 25% of the emissions were due to agriculture and land-use, and countries would not be able to achieve their Paris climate targets if this question wasn’t addressed.

He said, “So we’re at the forefront when it comes down to matters that can help reduce climate change,”

($1 = 0.8654 euros)