Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Murray Watt, has just been to London as part of a government push to inject a sense of urgency into Britain’s passage of the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement (UK-FTA). The agreement was signed more than a year ago, but it needs to be ratified by legislation passed in both parliaments – a job that Australia has finished but which is taking longer in Britain. At the G20 late last year both our Prime Minister Albanese and UK Prime Minister Sunak agreed that this deal would come into force in the first quarter of this year.
If successful, it would make it easier to find Australian produce in England and cheaper imported products in your local supermarket here. One of the sticking points comes from the UK agricultural sector about what the impact might be on UK farmers of Australian goods coming onto the market there – particularly in the wake of Brexit. They believe Australian products are produced at lower, less costly standards.
In an interview with ABC’s Radio national, Senator Murray Watt said, “I think people in the UK generally understand that there’s a very good deal here for both countries, good market access to different products. Of course Australia has the opportunity to meet some of the gaps in the market with high-quality beef, sheep meat, seafood, all sorts of other products as well, and the British want to take advantage of that. And of course, I’m following up the visit that Don Farrell made here late last year as the Trade Minister. And we’ve noticed that there has been a bit of criticism of the deal by some British politicians and farm groups, but by and large we remain pretty confident that this will get done as soon as possible.”
Smithfield Meat Market in London, the 800-year-old market used by London’s top restaurants to source their meat, and Tate & Lyle Sugars refinery are among the buyers willing to pay a premium for Australian produce as soon as the UK passes the necessary legislation. Until the 1970s Tate & Lyle bought a lot of Queensland sugar but, because of changes to tariffs, they had to stop buying.
Under the UK FTA Australia’s beef export limit would increase from 4,699 tonnes per year to 35,000 tonnes with no tariffs in the first year and rising to 110,000 tonnes by year 10. Lamb exports were worth $77 million in the 2020-21 year – a 15% share of the UK import market – with imports accounting for one-third of all sheep meat consumed in Britain. Like beef, British consumer demand for lamb has declined in recent years.
But there are warnings lucrative export opportunities will dry up unless Australian farming becomes more sustainable. Some critics have also questioned the climate impact of importing farm produce from halfway around the world. Many British consumers are highly sensitive to “food miles” and the issue was raised in almost every conversation Senator Watt had.
He made the argument that while greenhouse gas emissions from transport need to be taken into consideration, that has to be weighed against the overall carbon footprint of the product – the “whole-of-life perspective.” Because Australian agricultural practices could be much less carbon-intensive than those in destination markets, he said, that could offset the higher transport emissions.
There are a range of other actions being taken by the Australian Government to strengthen our biodiversity and carbon credit markets, which will have big implications for agriculture. We have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, and things have generally moved in a positive direction lately.
While taking nothing for granted, Senator Watts remained confident after his visit that the deadline for implementing the trade deal will be met by the UK parliament.
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