As established in the Agreement signed on 1 December 2008, the Official Journal of the EU has announced the entry into force of the Agreement between the European Community and Australia on trade in wine, for next 1 September 2010. This Agreement aims to facilitate and promote wine trade between the Community and Australia.

The Agreement between the European Community and Australia on trade in wine, signed on 1 September 2008 and officially published in the OJEU on 30 January 2009, will be fully applicable since 1 September 2010 to those wines falling under chapter 22.04 within the harmonized system. The general objective of such Agreement is to facilitate and promote commercial changes between wines originated in the Community and Australia under the conditions established by the Agreement.

The Agreement provides rules on:

• Oenological practices and processes and compositional requirements for wine
• Protection of wine names and related provisions on description and presentation
• Specific provisions on presentation and description
• Certification requirements

It also establishes that composition requirements are to, in all cases, fulfil a set of objectives such as the protection of human health, protection of the consumer against deceptive practices, as well as meeting the standards of good oenological practice outlined in the text.

Further to the negotiations between the European Union and Australia, the Commission issued a draft decision for the conclusion of a new agreement on wine to replace the 1994 one. The new agreement provides the conditions under which specific wines might be refused their registration at the request of one of the Parties, in accordance with the conditions for the recognition of names and geographical indications.

As for the presentation and designation provisions, the Agreement provides that the wines must be labelled with terms not containing false or misleading information on the nature, composition, quality or origin of the wine.