Minister flies to fend off rear guard action against UK trade deal

Australia has already signed off on the free trade agreement, however multiple leadership changes have slowed the UK's ratification process and reignited opposition to the deal.

When the deal was first proposed, the National Farmers Union and several UK politicians raised concerns the nation's growers would be out-competed by Australian produce flooding the domestic market.

"That's a bit of rear guard action being carried out by some UK members of parliament who for their own reasons aren't big supporters of the agreement," Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said.

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"My visit as much as anything is about making sure there's no slippage on that. In any free trade agreement, there's always domestic producers who are concerned about the impact on their own."

The UK parliament has referred the FTA to a committee for review and the Australian government is confident the deal is still supported by the majority of UK politicians.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak on the sidelines of the Indonesia G20 at the end of 2022, where both committed to bring the FTA into effect within the first quarter of 2023.

The UK is a heavily saturated market, but the affluent nation is seen as an ideal trade location for premium Australian products such as beef, seafood and wine. Senator Watt said there were also opportunities for sheep meat, sugar, grains and horticulture.

Senator Watt, along with National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson, will meet with UK industry representatives and importers to "set the scene and ensure they start buying as much product from us as possible" once the deal is finalised.

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The pair will then travel to Berlin to continue greasing the wheels of the European Union free trade deal.

Geographical indicators remain a sticking point, and although the EU has put forward a significantly watered down list of protected names, prosecco and feta remain on the list.

"We should not be forced to adopt those geographic indicators," Senator Watt said.

"Prosecco is a grape variety rather than a geographic location and we think that Australian producers should be able to continue using the names for those products that they've been doing for a very long time, along with feta."

Australia had made it "very clear that we're not going to just settle for any old agreement".

"There's got to be meaningful new access for Australian product for us to want to sign up to that deal," the Agriculture Minister said.

While in Berlin, Senator Watt will speak at an international agriculture conference, outlining the Labor government's stronger position on climate change and sustainability.

"We know we know that the EU insists on strong sustainability measures as part of its trade agreements and it's a good thing for Australian producers that we have a government that can demonstrate a really strong position on these issues," he said.