Australia’s poor fuel quality is preventing the sale of a range of European vehicles with higher standard engines.
The EU wants Australia to improve the quality and will push to clean up its petrol standards as part of negotiations on a new free trade agreement which could also see improved electric vehicle uptake.
The next round of FTA negotiation will be in October, and these issues has been raised at a bureaucratic level as a “technical barrier to trade,” The Guardian Australia reports.
The free trade agreement will get Australia’s support for emissions reduction targets agreed to under the Paris accord.
Europe is pushing for Australia to consider the issue of fuel quality, along with removing 5% industrial tariff and changes to Australia’s luxury car tax, affecting the majority of European vehicles.
The popular 91 unleaded petrol allows sulphur levels of up to 150 parts per million compared to the 10ppm allowed by the EU, ranking 66th in the world for its fuel quality, the lowest of all developed countries.
Therefore, some of the cleanest and newest European cars cannot be exported to Australia – manufacturers must either export older generation engines or not export them at all.
“The latest technology, low-emission engines cannot be supported in the domestic market,” the FCAI has said about Australia’s fuel quality.
The FCAI has said electric vehicles would offer a 3% to 5% improvement on CO2 performance overnight.
“As part of the free trade negotiations we will consider everything that is put on the table. Whether we agree to it is a different matter,” trade minister Simon Birmingham told The Guardian Australia.
He says it is not Australian practice to adopt European standards.
“But we will work through in a practical way any of these issues and see what may be possible in the Australian context, but ultimately we will only be doing any agreement if it is in the overall benefit of Australia.”
