• Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended a contentious free trade agreement proposal between Australia and the United Kingdom.
• Abbott, advisor to the UK Government’s Board of Trade, dismissed the concerns of UK farmers who fear being priced out by cheap Australian imports.
• The proposed agreement comes as the UK reconciles itself with the consequences of Brexit, while China cracks down on Australian exports.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has gone in to bat for a contentious free trade agreement (FTA) between Australia and the UK, dismissing the concerns of British farmers as “petty provincialism” impeding the post-Brexit deal.

In a Monday column for The Times, Abbott, now a leading advisor to the UK Government’s Board of Trade, said the introduction of tax-free trade in the beef and lamb markets would benefit both nations.

“Britain currently produces under 60% of what it eats so needs access to healthy and affordable food from elsewhere,” Abbott said.

“Where better to obtain the clean, quality food that Britain needs than Australia: the country you’ve always been able to depend on, in war and in peace?”

Abbott’s defensive comes as Britain attempts to rebuild its trade arrangements after severing itself from the European Union, while placating the local producers who say they’ll be driven out of business by cheaper imports.

But the proposed deal also suggests Australia is prepared to look to the past for trading opportunities, as China’s economic clout increasingly dominates future trading options.

No tariffs, no quotas, and plenty of beef

The crux of the deal is a plan to remove tariffs and quotas on meat traded between each nation, with those changes to occur over a 15-year period.

With Abbott’s numbers actually on the higher end — some estimates claim the UK might produce as little as 20% of its own food — advocates believe the trade agreement will allow each nation to build on existing trends and, importantly, provide a blueprint for how the UK negotiates with international partners after its split from the EU.

Australian industry players are on board.

In a September report, the Meat and Livestock Association noted the UK was Australia’s largest beef export market in the EU prior to Brexit.

Some 0.15% of all Australian beef exports head to the UK, and official government figures state some £49.9 million (AU$91 million) worth of Australian beef, veal, and sheep meat was imported over 2020.

With an eye to boost those figures, the Meat and Livestock Association called the argument for market liberalisation “compelling”.

Yet the proposed trade deal has not come without opposition.

Britain’s National Farmers Union says the deal would be detrimental to local producers, who they say could be priced out of the market by cheaper Australian imports.

Those concerns reportedly divided the Tory party room, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson only settling internal divisions with a call for unity.

It was those fears which drove Abbott to describe farmers’ opposition as “petty provincialism,” saying there was no reason for smaller producers to fear the impact of Australian agri-business.

“[I] have no doubt that the British product will continue to dominate high-end markets,” Abbott said.

The BBC reports the UK’s International Trade Secretary Liz Truss offered the terms of the free trade agreement to her Australian counterpart, Trade Minister Dan Tehan, on Friday.

Tehan told Sky News Australia on Monday that conversations with Truss will continue through the week.

Both parties are seeking to come to an agreement before Prime Minister Scott Morrison travels to Cornwall for June’s G7 summit.

If approved, the deal would allow the UK to inch away from Europe, while tapping into the historic vision of Australia as a primary producer for the Crown.

It would also mark a statement of intent from Australia, which is embroiled in its own trade stoush with its largest trade partner — China.

As China blocks Australian goods, exporters look back in time

China, which receives more of Australia’s agricultural exports than any other country, began suspending the importation of meat from Australian abattoirs in May last year, sending shockwaves through the export industry.

As a result, Australian beef exports plummeted 47% over the year to April, MLA states.

At the same time that most trade with China has dropped precipitously, it is impossible not to see any potential UK trade deal as an attempt to shore up alternative markets for Australian exports.

Speaking to Sky News Australia, Tehan said January’s written entreaty to his Chinese trade counterpart, asking for the nation to lift its ban on several key export goods, has gone unanswered.

“We’d like to sit down and work through the current disputes that we’ve got so that we can enhance and build on the trading relationship,” Tehan said.

With that partnership still fractured, the potential UK-Australia deal seems more like the reunion of two countries recently ostracised from bigger markets far closer to home.

There are also more positive ways of looking at it, as evidenced by Abbott.

“With so much shared history, comparable living standards and almost identical ways of thinking, there should be no easier deal than one between Britain and Australia,” he said.

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