The UK’s Post-Brexit Trade Agreements with Australia and New Zealand Go Into Effect

Sydney (Australia), May 31 (.).- The free trade agreements (FTA) between the United Kingdom with Australia and New Zealand, the first negotiated by London after leaving the European Union, entered into force this Wednesday in the context of the commercial turn of the British authorities towards the Indo-Pacific initiated after Brexit.

Both agreements eliminate almost all tariffs on products that are exchanged between the United Kingdom and Australia, on the one hand, and the British country and New Zealand, on the other, as well as provide greater migratory facilities, among other benefits between these three countries. with strong historical ties.

“This agreement creates new opportunities to deepen and expand trade and investment with one of Australia’s oldest and most important trading partners,” Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said in a statement today.

Australia and New Zealand signed separate agreements in December 2021 and February 2022 and are the first that the United Kingdom began negotiating from scratch and signed after the United Kingdom left the European Union.

However, they were not ratified by the Australian and New Zealand Parliaments until November 2022 and by the British until March of this year.

These FTAs ​​-in addition to those signed by the United Kingdom with Japan and South Korea that entered into force in 2020 and 2021, respectively- seek to intensify British trade in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, where it also flirts with India, which it will become the world’s third largest economy before the end of this decade.

For Australia, the agreement means 99% of Australian products – including wine, honey, nuts, electrical equipment, among others – enter the British market without having to pay tariffs, while tariffs on some meat or dairy products will be eliminated. progressively over the next decade.

Likewise, the free trade agreement includes migratory facilities for businessmen, professionals and young adults from both countries, with tourist and work visas, among other measures.

The bilateral exchange of goods with the United Kingdom, Australia’s fifteenth trading partner and a strategic ally in the AUKUS security alliance that also includes the United States, was 10,000 million Australian dollars (about 6,495 million dollars or about 6,077 million euros) in 2022, according to official data.

For New Zealand, the agreement eliminates tariffs on 99.5% of its products such as wine, its star exporter to the United Kingdom, while meat and dairy products will have – like Australia – a progressive reduction of tariffs in a period of 50 years, according to a statement released today by the Wellington Executive.

With a bilateral trade exchange of 5,300 million New Zealand dollars (3,185 million dollars or 2,980 million euros), the United Kingdom is New Zealand’s seventh trading partner, according to official sources.