The UK is overselling its free trade agreement with Australia in the wake of Brexit, British MPs have found in a report published on Wednesday.
The cross-party International Trade Committee has warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government “not to exaggerate the benefits of trade deals in general” after analyzing the Australia deal concluded in December 2021.
The findings come as International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan faced committee questions on Wednesday about the deal with the former British colony.
“Government needs to be on an equal footing with the public – this trade deal will not have the transformative impact that ministers would like to claim,” the committee’s chair, Angus Brendan MacNeil, said in a statement.
The deal was the first free trade agreement to be signed since the UK formally left the European Union in early 2021.
Britain has said the deal is expected to unlock an annual £10.4 billion ($12.4 billion) worth of bilateral trade.
“As the first entirely new trade deal since Brexit, this deal sets a precedent for the future,” added MacNeil, an MP for the Scottish National Party, which wants Scotland’s independence from the UK.
“It is important that the Government learns from this experience and negotiates harder next time to maximize gains and minimize losses for all economic sectors and parts of the UK.”
The deal with Australia is seen as low-hanging fruit amid tougher free trade talks with the United States.
Regarding the deal with Australia, the committee noted that “the elimination of almost all tariffs on agricultural imports represents a significant change and may set an important precedent for deals with major food-exporting nations”.
But it added that tariff cuts on goods, including Australian wines, “wouldn’t likely make a noticeable difference at the supermarket checkout”.
MPs also expressed “disappointment that duty-free Australian food is not required to meet core UK food production standards, for example on the use of pesticides”.
However, they welcomed the agreement’s environmental impact assessment, albeit limited, and the “inclusion of provisions on forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking”.
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