AUSTRALIA - New Trade Deal with EU

Australia and the European Union signed a free trade agreement after eight years of negotiations, removing tariffs on almost all goods and potentially easing EU access to Australian critical minerals.

The deal follows intensified talks amid sharply higher U.S. tariffs under the Trump administration and growing Western concerns over China’s dominant position in rare earths and other critical minerals. The two sides also signed an agreement to deepen security and defense cooperation.

The agreement will remove more than 99% of tariffs on EU goods exports to Australia, saving companies 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) a year. EU exports to Australia are expected to grow by up to 33% over the next decade.

EU firms exported 37 billion euros of goods to Australia in 2025 and 28 billion euros of services in 2023. The EU was Australia’s third-largest two-way trading partner in 2024 and its sixth-largest export destination, while also being its second-largest source of foreign investment.

-www.reuters.com, 23 March 2025

Commentary: Australia is one of the super-successful nations, built primarily on the social-capital system, with excellent healthcare services, education, human rights, and personal freedom. Worldometers.info lists Australia in 10th place in average life expectancy at 84.3 years, just behind Switzerland (USA 79.6 years).

According to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia:

In 2018, Australia claimed the top place in terms of global median wealth per adult (US $191,453), edging out Switzerland, according to the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s 2018 Global Wealth Report. Australia’s average wealth per adult of US $411,060 is also the second highest in the world after Switzerland.

-www.ceda.com.au, 29 October 2018

With Australia’s new free trade agreement with the world’s richest continent, Europe, wealth will grow.

Our interest lies in the Church. With a population of over 20 million people, only about a million Australians attend church weekly. Christian Daily International reports:

New national data suggests Australia’s churches are continuing a gradual recovery in weekly attendance following the COVID-19 pandemic, while still falling short of levels seen at the turn of the millennium.

-www.christiandaily.com, 30 December 2025

One thing becomes clear: throughout the Western, industrialized world, religion in general is relegated to a lower preference, replaced by economic prosperity and success. That is not surprising, for the last church mentioned in Revelation, the Church of Laodicea, prides itself in prosperity: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

(See Seven Letters from Heaven, Item #1081, $4.50.)