UNITED KINGDOM – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian PM Scott Morrison agreed the deal over dinner at Downing Street. This is the first trade deal to be negotiated from scratch since the UK left the EU.
According to BBC reports, it is seen as an important step towards the UK joining a wider Asia Pacific free-trade agreement.
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It is also expected to give UK and Australian food producers and other businesses easier access to each other’s markets – an ambition perhaps alluded to by the meal served up to the pair on Monday evening – Welsh lamb and Scottish smoked salmon, washed down with Australian wine.
The UK government says membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could also provide British farmers with huge opportunities.
However, there had been concerns in the farming community about the UK compromising on its food standards, as well as tensions in government between the Environment Secretary, George Eustice, and the Trade Secretary, Liz Truss.
UK farmers also had concerns there would be no meaningful safeguards in place to stop farmers being undercut by cheap imports.
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According to the National Farmers Union (NFU), Australian farmers are able to produce beef at a lower cost of production, and could undercut farmers in the UK.
Scotland had also raised concerns that the farming industry could be overwhelmed if the market is flooded with lower standard goods.
But the UK’s Trade Secretary Liz Truss has previously insisted: “We will make sure in all the deals we do that British farming thrives.”
