UK-Australia Trade Deal: What Are The Arguments For And Against?

The government wants to finalise negotiations over a free-trade agreement with Australia by early June.

It has long argued the UK's ability to strike its own trade deals around the world is one of the big benefits of Brexit.

But British farmers fear it could threaten their livelihood.

As part of an overall free-trade deal, Australia wants access to the UK food market - without tariffs (taxes on imports) or quotas (limits on the amounts that can be traded).

This would make it easier and cheaper for big Australian farms to export products such as lamb and beef to the UK.

In return, British farmers (and other companies) would enjoy the same access to the Australian market - that's what free trade is all about.

A deal with Australia would also be an important stepping-stone, the government says, towards joining a wider Asia Pacific free-trade agreement - the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) - which could provide British farmers with huge opportunities.

An ambitious deal with Australia could see some shop prices fall slightly, because food in the UK is often produced at higher standards and cost.

But this prospect of cheap foreign imports has led National Farmers Union president Minette Batters to warn of the "slow, withering death of family farms" in the UK, if the wrong deal is struck.

Critics of the rapid removal of tariffs and quotas also point out a deal with Australia would increase the size of the British economy by only about 0.02% over 15 years.

And if Australia is offered generous terms, they say, other bigger economies - such as the US and Brazil - will want at least as good a deal in the future. So it sets an important precedent.

Trade liberalisation would be introduced gradually over a number of years and carefully monitored, the government says.

"I am always looking to make sure British farmers will not be undercut by unfair practices from elsewhere," Trade Secretary Liz Truss told MPs.

"We will make sure in all the deals we do that British farming thrives."

But, unsurprisingly, there are differences of opinion within the cabinet.

Part of the debate is about how long it should take to remove tariffs (up to 15 years) and whether any kind of quotas should remain.

Food standards - such as hygiene and animal welfare rules - are an important issue in the UK.

And the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) notes the government has committed to making sure British farming improves its environmental impact.

"A rushed trade deal with Australia could drive a coach and horses through those efforts," WWF-UK chief executive Tanya Steele says, "and provide a gateway into the UK for foods produced in ways that harm the environment."

The Department for International Trade, meanwhile, says any deal with Australia will "include protections for the agriculture industry" and not "compromise our high standards".

The government has signed a long list of trade deals over the past year or so but they have been rollovers of those the UK already had as part of the EU.

There is also the new free trade deal with the EU itself, which provides less open market access than EU membership did, as many farmers and fishing communities have already discovered.

A free-trade deal with Australia would be the first big deal that really expands markets.

This makes it politically and symbolically important.

And the government hopes to finalise a deal before world leaders meet in Cornwall next month, at the G7 summit, to which Australia has also been invited.

Trade deals are always going to produce winners and losers.

And if Scottish and Welsh farmers, for example, feel badly let down, this could affect:

But supporters of more ambitious trade agreements say Brexit means doing things differently.

And if the UK cannot make a deal with a like-minded country such as Australia, with whom can it?