How significant is the UK-Australia trade deal announced this week during Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s visit to Britain? Well, Australia already has 17 genuine free trade agreements, including with the United States, Japan and China. But the free trade agreement with the UK is undoubtedly one of the highest quality agreements Australia has ever reached. In terms of the liberalisation of markets, it is only exceeded by the free trade agreement Australia has with New Zealand.
This demonstrates something very important: that the UK, having left the European Union, is going to be a genuine champion of global trade liberalisation. That will not only be good for the British economy and UK consumers – it will also be very good for British diplomacy and Britain’s standing in the world.
For a while, Australians had their suspicions that the UK would find it difficult to move on from the traditions and strictures of EU trade policy.
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