Free trade between Australia and Britain to remove taxes on Aussie exports

The FTA will be formally announced by Trade Minister Dan Tehan and UK High Commissioner Vicki Treadell in Adelaide on Friday.

The deal will abolish taxes on 99 per cent of Australian exports worth $10 billion and UK imports worth $200 million.

The maximum age that people from both countries can apply for working holiday visas of up to three years will be between 30 to 35 years.

It will also give Australian agricultural exporters better access to the UK market and help the Australian wine industry, with more than $40 million of tariffs removed for bottles entering the UK.

Around $725 million worth of farming products like beef, sugar and dairy will not have a duty imposed.

On top of tariff removals, the Australian public sector will now be able to attract contract bids from the UK.

Additionally, British architects, scientists, researchers, lawyers and accountants will have access to visas to work in Australia without being subject to requirements under Australia's skilled occupation list.

The UK is touting the deal as its largest 'from scratch' agreement to be finalised, saying it provides a gateway into the fast-growing Indo-Pacific region and boosts the UK's bid to join the 11-country trade pact known as the CPTPP.

The trans-Pacific pact includes Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell said it was a historic and world-class agreement between the two nations.

"British companies (can) realise even greater opportunity in Australia and (the deal) shows that Britain is open for business," she said.

"The mobility elements further strengthen our existing connections and ensures that talent exchange will be even easier to achieve."

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Mr Tehan says it's the most comprehensive and ambitious deal with the UK outside of New Zealand.

"It will strengthen the deep connection between our peoples, with Australians now having similar access to Britain as European nationals, and British nationals having access to Australia similar to our best free trade agreements," he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Australian on Friday.

"The Australia-UK FTA is an example to the world that embracing free trade is the best way out of the pandemic."

The in-principle deal between the two nations was unveiled in June this year, following months of negotiations.

There were five rounds of negotiations between delegates over the course of a year before the in-principle agreement was reached in June.

The UK is Australia's eighth largest two-way trading partner worth almost $27 billion in 2018.

It is also Australia's third-largest services trading partner, with Australian service exports valued at $5.5 billion and imports totalling $9.2 billion in the same year.

- Australian Associated Press

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