Govt accused of rushing UK trade deal without scrutiny for political gain

Trade Minister Dan Tehan has indicated he will expedite the process, which Labor believe will happen before the election, allowing the government to lay claim to a trade victory during the upcoming campaign.

All free trade deals must be examined by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties for 20 days. Currently the committee is in the process accepting and reviewing submissions, with a final report due on December 17, after parliament has adjourned for the year.

Mr Tehan said the government wanted to rush the process, so the deal "enters into force by the end of July", to trigger the first wave of tariff reductions and quota increases for the remained of 2022, with a second wave of reductions to come into affect in January 2023.

"If the FTA enters into force after January 1 in 2023, the Year 1 tariff and quota will apply for the remainder of 2023 and we won't move to the Year 2 tariff and quota until 2024," Mr Tehan's spokesperson said.

However, Labor trade spokesperson Madeleine King said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had confirmed the tariff reductions were indexed annually on 1 January.

"Allowing the parliament and community to apply the same level of scrutiny that has been applied to all trade agreements since 1996 will not change the operation of the tariff reductions for the benefit of Australian exporters," Ms King said.

"This is a government allergic to scrutiny and addicted to photo ops and scare campaigns."

The Australia Institute international affairs director Allan Behm said the risk versus reward of rushing the FTA process didn't add up.

Mr Behm said in the past, Australia had been locked into one-side trade deals when they have been rushed, such as the United States FTA signed under John Howard, with agricultural export products often getting the raw end of the deal, particularly sugar, lamb and beef.

"The biggest issue with the lack of scrutiny is we don't have enough time to see what the unintended consequences might be or to see if we're getting a fair deal in the treaty," Mr Behm said.

The the UK is "a very small market" for Australia, making up just over one per cent of the nation's exports and about two per cent of its imports.

"No one is jumping up and down for this, because it's not big enough to worry about," Mr Behm said.

"It raises the question, if it's not worth much in dollar terms, then why hurry it through instead of making sure it's the best deal possible?

"It's to get the political advantage of saying they've negotiated a successful trade deal with the UK. The vast majority of people won't know it's not worth much."

The UK's own International Agreements Committee is currently in the process of taking submissions, but has no timeline on when it will deliver a final verdict on the deal.

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