The European Union wants to launch and conclude free trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand in the next two years, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says, opening up a potential race with Britain.
If Juncker's time frame is achieved, the EU could nip in ahead of the UK, which is also courting both countries but cannot negotiate independent trade deals until it leaves the EU in March 2019.
Juncker said there was a good chance that the EU would agree the main elements of a new free trade with the Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and of an updated trade partnership with Mexico by the end of this year.
"And today, we are proposing to open trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand," Juncker told EU MPs on Wednesday.
"I want all of these agreements to be finalised by the end of this mandate. And I want them negotiated in the fullest transparency," he added. The current Commission's term of office runs until October 31, 2019.
The Turnbull government has previously said it hopes to finalise a trade deal with the EU by 2019.
The EU is seeking to capitalise on new trade opportunities in response to a more protectionist "America First" stance from the United States under President Donald Trump.
Juncker said, however, that while Europe favoured open commerce, it needed reciprocity from its trading partners.
"We have to get what we give," he said.
The European Union was not a group of "naive free traders" and would always defend its strategic interests.
Juncker did not mention any country, but most EU concern over reciprocity and investment has centred on China.
