Nationals leader Matt Canavan arrived at Parliament this week with pineapples, a tropical fruit that is sweet and prickly, not unlike the proposed European-Australian trade agreement.

The Coalition’s opposition to the deal, which Senator Canavan reiterated on Friday with some force, is another example of how politics has been upended by One Nation’s rise.

Under Liberal Party leadership, the Coalition was the leading voice for international free trade. Liberal leaders from John Howard onwards argued that as a medium-sized trading nation, Australia disproportionally benefitted when tariffs and other barriers were brought down.

Liberal leader Angus Taylor, an economist by training, joined the condemnation of US President Donald Trump when he included Australia in the worldwide tariffs that were announced on his April 2 “Liberation Day”.

A month earlier, Trade Minister Don Farrell had signed a deal eight years in the making that was a pre-emptive response to the anti-trade attitude in the White House.

Under the agreement with the European Union, 97.8 per cent of Australian goods sold overseas, measured by value, would be allowed to enter the European Union duty-free.

After seven years this would rise to 98 per cent, increasing the size of the Australian economy by up to $7.8 billion by 2030, according to the Europeans, although the Albanese Government usually puts the benefit at $10 billion a year.

No trade deal is perfect, and this one has faults. One that rarely gets mentioned is a large tax was kept on European (and other) cars worth more than $80,809 even though the tax was introduced to protect a domestic car-making industry that no longer exists.

Desperately trying to fight off the political forces on his right, Mr Taylor agreed to go along with Nationals’ opposition to the deal. The Nats argue it is unfair on farmers. The point of the pineapples was a warning that foreign fruit can contain pests that might damage Australian crops.

“We have the best pineapples in the world, which Labor members of parliament can taste for themselves this week,” Senator Canavan said on Wednesday, promising to deliver pineapple juice to Labor MPs’ offices. “That’s why we must protect our pineapple industry.”

Underlying the argument was a history of resistance to free trade from elements of the Nationals, a prejudice growing stronger as the nationalist One Nation threatens Nat seats.

Heating up

Then there’s the climate problem. Environmental activists haven’t made a big deal out of the agreement, but it contains legally binding climate-related commitments the Europeans insisted on.

The European Union is at the forefront of climate policy, and uses trade agreements to spread its approach globally. One of the key examples of the Coalition’s rightward shift is on climate policy. It hasn’t proposed repudiating the Paris Climate Accord, unlike One Nation, but has dropped the 2050 net zero target for greenhouse gases emissions.

Supporting the trade deal would therefore leave the Coalition exposed to arguments from One Nation, made with some justification, that it was acceding to a pan-national government dictating Australian climate policy.

Senator Hanson described meeting EU officials and being told a trade deal would be possible if Australia acceded to European climate rules. “It’s basically, you will do what we say,” said at the National Press Club in June.

Which may help explain why Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie argues no deal is better than a bad deal.

“We’ve made it very clear that we will not be supporting a bad deal,” she told ABC radio Friday morning. “And the first principle of any free trade arrangement is that no deal is always better than a bad deal.”

The Coalition can only block parliamentary approval of the agreement with the support of the Greens, a party generally sceptical about the benefits of international trade.

Dying in the Senate

That raises the possibility a once-in-a-decade international agreement could fail in the Senate, an event of great significance to Australia’s long and often-frustrating attempts to break down trade barriers.

When signed in March, the deal was promoted by Labor Trade Minister Don Farrell as particularly good for farmers by eliminating tariffs on wine, nuts, fruit and vegetables, honey, olive oil, most dairy products, wheat and barley and seafood.

Australia will be allowed to sell 35,000 tonnes of beef without paying tariffs, an eight fold increase. But Europe will charge 50 per cent tariffs on some Australian steel and European cheese will remain heavily subsidised, making it difficult for Australian cheese to compete.

On Friday he indicated the government did not intend to renegotiate with the Europeans to satisfy Coalition concerns. In effect, he dared Mr Taylor and Senator Canavan to try to blow up the deal.

“If they reject the agreement and it fails then that is on their head,” he told The Australian.

“Free and fair trade is absolutely vital to the future prosperity of this country, and we need to send a message to the rest of the world that not just the Labor Party, it’s Australia that supports free and fair trade.”

One of the problems with free trade is that it is appreciated more by economists than voters. While passage of the agreement will be good for the economy, there is more benefit, politically, for parties on the right to oppose than support it.