Thank you for contacting me about the free trade agreement with Australia.
I believe the trade deal reached with Australia is an enormous opportunity for the UK. We are Australia’s second largest trading partner outside the Asia-Pacific and trade between our two countries was worth £18.8 billion in 2019. It also paves the way for UK membership of CPTPP, a group of 11 Pacific markets worth £9 trillion.
The deal will eliminate tariffs on all UK goods and support jobs across the country. People under the age of 35 will be able to travel and work in Australia more freely, British tech companies will benefit from enhanced access to the Australian market, and there will be greater opportunities for UK professionals and service providers.
The trade agreement also contains a dedicated chapter on animal welfare, the first such chapter for an Australian trade deal, and imports to the UK will have to meet the same standards as they did before. This means that imports of hormone-treated beef will continue to be banned in the UK. British farmers will be further protected by a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years. Australia also has one of the highest animal welfare standards in the world, similar to our own, and scoring five out of five by the World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE). The practices of castration of chickens and production of foie gras, for example, are banned in Australia on welfare grounds but continue to be permitted in the EU. The Trade and Agriculture Commission will provide independent scrutiny of animal welfare in the deal ahead of its ratification.
The trade agreement will be scrutinised by Parliament in the usual way. The agreement in principle will need to be converted into a legal text which can then be signed by the UK and Australia. An explanatory memorandum and impact assessment will be published alongside the legal text. These documents will be reviewed by committees in Parliament and by the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission.
Under the requirements of the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government will also be required to set out the extent to which the measures in the trade agreement are consistent with maintaining UK protections for human, animal, or plant life or health, animal welfare and the environment. Once advice from the Commission and the report has been published, the agreement will be laid before Parliament. Under the terms of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, Parliament will have 21 days to raise concerns and resolve against ratification if it so chooses.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.