MP welcomes trade deal with Australia

North Northumberland MP, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, has welcomed the announcement that a landmark trade deal has been made between the UK and Australia. The agreement opens up fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers, as well as young people wanting to work and live Down Under.

There are 10 key benefits of the trade deal:

1. Tariff free trade for British goods: The deal removes tariffs on £4.3billion of exports making it cheaper to sell products such as cars, Scotch whisky and ceramics into Australia. This will especially benefit car makers in the Midlands and the North East.
2. Easier for Brits to travel and work in Australia: Under 35s will be able to travel and work in Australia more freely creating exciting oportunities for young people.  Highly-skilled proefsseionals from the UK will be able to work in Australia temporarily, and Aussie firms will no longer have to prioritise hiring Australian nationals first.
3. Lower prices and more choice for British consumers: Elimination of taridds on Aussie favourites like Jacob's Creek and Hardy's wines providing a boost for consumers and saving British households up to £34million a year. UK manufacturers will benefit from cheaper imports of vital parts and ingredients from Australia.
4. Enhanced access for British tech firms: The deal will create opportunities for the UK’s cutting edge digital and tech sectors, preparing us to lead in industries of the future like AI, space exploration and low emissions technology. The gold standard deal, with the world’s first ever innovation chapter, will facilitate the free flow of data, saving UK businesses from the cost of setting up servers in Australia, whilst maintaining personal data protections standards for British consumers.
5. Greater opportunities for UK professionals in Australia: UK lawyers will be able to practice in Australia without having to requalify as an Australian lawyer. The deal will help facilitate the recognition of UK professional qualifications across many sectors, creating opportunity for our professionals while allowing British companies to attract and retain global talent.
6. Boost for UK services industries: The UK exported £5.4 billion worth of services to Australia in 2020 accounting for 56 per cent of our total exports to the country. The combined effect of the deal’s cutting-edge provisions, allowing UK and Australian service professionals access to each other’s markets, and reduced barriers to investment will give a substantial lift to the UK’s service sectors.
7. Slashing red tape for entrepreneurs and small business: Red tape and bureaucracy will be torn down for more than 13,000 small businesses across the length and breadth of the UK who already export goods to Australia. The agreement will deliver quicker export times and ensure small business have access to new intelligence that will better allow them to seize the opportunities created by the deal.
8. Access to billions of pounds worth of procurement contracts: British companies will now be able to bid for additional Australian government contracts worth billions of pounds. It is the most substantial level of access Australia has ever granted in a free trade agreement, creating new opportunities for UK firms including in transport and financial services, building on the success of companies like Leeds-headquartered Turner & Townsend, who have project managed some of Australia’s biggest public transport infrastructure programmes.
9. Stronger cooperation on shared challenges: Australia is a like-minded democracy that shares our belief in free enterprise, the rule of law, and high standards in areas like labour, animal welfare, gender equality and the environment. The deal will uphold these high standards and foster collaboration on challenges like tackling climate change and unfair trading practices.
10. Paves the way to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP): Australia strongly supports UK membership of CPTPP, which will further open up 11 Pacific markets worth £9 trillion GDP. CPTPP membership will secure British exports superior access to these growing markets, approximately two thirds of middle class consumers expected to be in Asia by 2030.

Protection for UK farmers:

Throughout the negotiations we have listened closely to the concerns of farmers and other stakeholders. That is why we have agreed 15 years of capped tariff free imports from Australia, which means that Australian farmers will only have the same access as EU farmers 15 years after the agreement comes into force.

We will back British farmers in opening up new export opportunities, such as to the CPTPP markets which are expected to account for a quarter of global import demand for meat by 2030.

The deal also includes an unprecedented chapter on animal welfare with commitments to collaborating to promote high standards, going further than any trade deal in force across the world. We have agreed a non-regression clause on animal welfare with Australia, which means that neither country can lower their animal welfare standards to undercut the other.