UK-Australia trade talks stoke farming tensions

LONDON: Britain’s environment minister on Tuesday said any trade deal with Australia must not hurt UK farmers, following reports of a split in ongoing talks. Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News that there was a “balance to be struck” between free trade and protecting key domestic sectors like farming.

“At the moment there’s a very clear consensus in government that we want to do a trade agreement with countries like Australia, but obviously on the right terms,” Eustice added. The Financial Times, citing people with knowledge of internal discussions, reported there was a “ferocious” battle in government over whether to sign off a trade deal with Australia.

Eustice and senior minister Michael Gove reportedly fear UK farmers will suffer from zero-tariff imports of Australian beef and lamb, echoing worries from Britain’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

However, international trade secretary Liz Truss and Brexit minister David Frost want to grant tariff-free access to Australian farmers, according to the business daily.

Truss is eager to strike Britain’s first major post-Brexit trade deal before the nation hosts the G7 leaders’ summit next month in Cornwall, southwest England. Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pursuing his “Global Britain” strategy that seeks potentially more advantageous trade deals than those negotiated while it was an EU member.

Johnson’s administration is also keen to preserve its farming sector, while upholding health and environmental standards. NFU president Minette Batters warned there was a “trade-off” between securing new markets abroad and opening up to imports.

“This trade-off needs to be balanced, and we need to make sure concessions to our hugely valuable home market are not given away lightly,” she said.

“There is a very real risk that, if we get it wrong, UK farming will suffer irreversible damage rather than flourish in the way we all desire, to the detriment of our environment, our food security and our rural communities.”

An Australia pact would mark Britain’s first post-Brexit trade agreement that was not merely a replication or rollover of its previous EU arrangement. Johnson has already secured trade deals with the European Union and Japan, and is also in discussions with India, New Zealand and the United States.