UK and Australia formally agree terms in first major post-Brexit trade deal for Britain

Boris Johnson has announced a trade deal between the UK and Australia has been formally agreed.

The move is the first trade deal built from scratch since Brexit, and is seen as an important step towards the UK joining wider Asia Pacific free-trade agreement.

Speaking at Downing Street, the prime minister said: "Now, thanks to this deal, we hope there will be even more trade between the UK and Australia.”

Mr Johnson said the move would "benefit" British farmers after concerns had been raised about the impact cheap meat imports could undercut the British market.

He added: “The idea is that we will be able to do even more because we are taking tariffs off, so for Northern Ireland, Northern Irish machine tools, this will be good news.

“It will be good news for British car manufacturers, it will be good news for British services, for British financial services and it will be good news for the agricultural sector on both sides.

“Here, we had to negotiate very hard and I want everybody to understand that this is a sensitive sector for both sides and we’ve got a deal that runs over 15 years and contains the strongest possible provisions for animal welfare.

Dominic Lipinski

“But I think it is a good deal and I think it’s one that will benefit British farmers and British consumers as well. It will also make it easier for British people, for young people to go and work in Australia.”

The new deal will help distillers by removing tariffs of up to 5% on Scotch whisky, according to a Downing Street statement stressing the benefits of the deal to the whole UK. It said more than 450 businesses in Wales exported to Australia last year and that “life science companies and chemicals manufacturers are set to benefit in particular”.

For Northern Ireland, it said “90% of all exports from Northern Ireland to Australia are machinery and manufacturing goods – used extensively in Australia’s mining, quarrying and recycling sectors. Under the new FTA tariffs will be removed and customs procedures will be simplified”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at 10 Downing Street, London, ahead of a meeting to formally announce a trade deal with the UK.
Dominic Lipinski

And car manufacturers in the Midlands and North of England will see tariffs of up to 5% cut, it added.

Michael Gove described International Trade Secretary Liz Truss as a “tough” and “shrewd” negotiator who will be looking at “what’s best for Britain” in discussing deals with other countries.

He said: “It’s Liz Truss who’s negotiating these trade deals, and anyone who knows Liz knows that she’s not going to roll over when another country says ‘We want this particular concession or we want that particular arrangement just because you gave it to someone else’.

“She’s going to say ‘Look, I’m going to decide what’s best for Britain’.

“She is a tough, principled, shrewd and effective negotiator. I don’t think anyone would mistake Liz for a patsy.

“And so other countries shouldn’t imagine that in the negotiation of trade deals we will be anything other than determined to get the best deal for Britain’s producers, and also for UK consumers as well, because one of the things about trade deals is that overall they should reduce the costs that consumers face.”

The government has signed a number of trade deals since Brexit, but many have been roll-overs from the UK's time in the EU.