Slovakia supports talks on EU-Australia trade agreement

The Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) are in favour of beginning talks on a free trade agreement between the EU and Australia at the earliest opportunity, the V4 economy ministers concurred in Budapest last week. "A similar EU-Canada agreement was concluded during the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council. Agreements of this kind enable our economies to supply our products to their markets," said Slovak Economy Minister Peter Žiga. Slovakia will want to include certain conditions in the agreement, particularly provisions concerning agriculture and the automotive industry. "Slovakia is one of the largest automotive producers and our goal is to ease up car distribution to this country," said Žiga. He also added that Australia is one of the world's largest agricultural producers and Slovakia would try to reach an agreement that would not cause significant troubles to Slovak farmers.