‘Safeguards to stop flood of goods from NZ and Australia’

A TRADE minister has insisted that there are safeguards in place for British farmers as the UK marks the day that new trading rules with Australia and New Zealand come into place.

Under the deals’ terms, from yesterday tariffs on all UK goods exports to Australia and New Zealand will be removed, access to these markets for services unlocked and red tape slashed for digital trade and work visas.

While the introduction of the post-Brexit agreements was lauded as a “historic moment” by Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, there have been complaints about the terms the UK signed up to with Canberra and Wellington.

Former environment secretary George Eustice, who comes from a Cornish farming family, has previously taken aim at the Australian pact, arguing it “gave away far too much for far too little in return”.

But international trade minister Nigel Huddleston looked to assure farmers that the UK Government has “got their backs” when it comes to protecting domestic food producers.

He said there were “safeguards” within the terms of the deals to allow ministers to prevent the UK market from being “flooded” with Australian and New Zealand produce.

Should those mechanisms, including stalling the timetable for tariff liberalisation, fail to arrest the problem, the UK could decide to exit the free trade agreements altogether, Mr Huddleston said – although he stressed that he did not think such drastic action would be necessary.

Speaking to the PA news agency, the minister said: “There were some concerns from certain parts of the sector about what if all of a sudden there was a massive surge and they were flooded with imports, so we put protections in place.

“It literally is in the details of the deal so that we’ve got bilateral safeguards in place, a number of protections.

“Also tariff reductions come in over time. That was deliberately done to provide additional reassurance, to the farming sector in particular, that we’ve got their backs and we’re looking after them, literally to the point that if there’s a massive surge, we can call a pause and say, ‘Right, hold off for a couple of years until we’re able to restabilise.’”

Mr Huddleston said that if any sector felt the trade deals were “threatening the viability” of their industry, then ministers could apply a “bilateral safeguard clause”.

He added: “That can last a couple of years so that we can see what’s going wrong and of course, if necessary, have discussions again with the trading partner.”