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London (AFP)
The United Kingdom achieved a “historic” post-Brexit trade agreement with Australia, which will open the doors to the Asia-Pacific region, after the trade pacts it has already concluded with the European Union (EU), Japan and Norway.
According to a statement published this Tuesday by the Prime Minister’s office, it is the first trade agreement reached by the United Kingdom that does not consist of the renewal or modification of an existing one between the European Union and other countries.
“Today opens a new era in relations between the United Kingdom and Australia”, with this free trade agreement offering “fantastic possibilities for British businesses and consumers,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson underlined in the statement.
The official once again boasted of his idea of ”Global Britain” or “planetary Britain”, with which he tries to reaffirm the international luster of the country after leaving the European Union (EU).
In addition to trade, the two countries want to cooperate more on security, climate change and technology.
The British leader finalized the details of this pact on Monday night in London with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison.
The agreement, to be published in the next few days, will allow all British goods to enter Australia duty-free. Trade between the two countries accounted for 13.9 billion pounds ($ 19.6 billion) in 2020, a year marked nonetheless by the pandemic. In 2019, the UK was Australia’s fifth largest trading partner.
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The deal also wants to protect British farmers, who were concerned about competition from Australian products, such as beef and lamb, which have more flexible sanitary standards, the statement said.
Thus, a limit on imports to the United Kingdom is foreseen for 15 years.
Before the announcement, the British minister in charge of managing the government action, Michael Gove, sent a message of reassurance to farmers.
“Most of the Australian products go to Asia, it is their closest market,” he said. “The amount of Australian meat that can reach the UK is a small part of its production,” he insisted.
The agreement also includes a point on travel, which will allow Britons under 35 to travel and work in Australia more freely.
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The government also wants to help British producers find other destinations for their products, for example in the Pacific region.
This agreement is expected to more easily open the doors of the trans-Pacific trade agreement, which brings together 11 countries, including Mexico, Peru, Chile, Japan, Canada, Vietnam and Australia, which agreed to open the accession process of the United Kingdom at the beginning of June.
The trans-Pacific agreement, CPTPP, is a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) from which former President Donald Trump withdrew to the United States after coming to power in 2017.
The UK officially left the European Union in 2020 and left the single market in early 2021.
Since then, it has multiplied contacts to achieve post-Brexit trade agreements with other countries.
He is currently negotiating with India and New Zealand. Talks are also planned with Canada and Mexico. The United Kingdom is also considering reaching a trade agreement with the United States, although there is not much progress so far and the issue was not mentioned in the meeting between Johnson and US President Joe Biden.
© 2021 AFP
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