Australia trade deal ‘will be benchmark’

INTERNATIONAL TRADE Secretary Liz Truss has said she believes a free trade agreement with Australia could be an “exemplar” for other nations on “what the future of trade can look like”.

Official negotiations for a postBrexit trade deal between the two countries began last week, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the agreement would bring the countries “closer than ever before”.

In celebration of the negotiations getting under way, the Australian British Chamber of Commerce brought Ms Truss and her Australian counterpart, trade minister Simon Birmingham, together for a webinar on each country’s hopes and expectations for the trade deal.

After declaring that the free trade agreement would serve to further the “excellent” relationship between the two countries, Ms Truss said she was confident that the deal would establish a global benchmark for other nations to strive for.

“I expect that the deal that we strike with Australia will be one of the most advanced deals in the world,” Leeds-educated Ms Truss said.

“It will set out terms of trade others will want to look to as they develop their own trading arrangements.

“I see this as being an exemplar deal where two like-minded free trading nations can show the rest of the world what the future of trade can look like.”

During the web conference, she also touched on the importance of ensuring any trade deal between the two countries accommodates the needs of small businesses to thrive in a postCovid economy.

Ms Truss said the UK and Australia share “the importance of not putting up trade restrictive barriers at this time when we seek to recover from Covid”.