Tony Abbott says UK free-trade deal means British submarines better option

Tony Abbott is urging Australia to opt for British rather than American nuclear submarines following the signing of the new Australia-UK free-trade agreement.

Former PM Tony Abbott. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Tony Abbott is urging Australia to opt for British rather than American nuclear submarines following the signing of the new Australia-UK free-trade agreement, saying the FTA would help the program get under way faster.

The former prime minister writes in The Weekend Australian that the deal complements the decades-old Australia-US free-trade agreement, finalising the economic partnership that underpins the trilateral AUKUS strategic alliance.

Mr Abbott, who advocated for the FTA as an adviser to the UK Board of Trade, says the purchase of the UK’s Astute-class submarine could be the better option for Australia than US Virginia-class boats, because the British option would be less likely to face US resistance over technology sharing.

“In my judgment, it may ultimately prove easier for the US to give Australia the nuclear technology that someone else already has,” he writes.

“If so, it would make good sense for Australia to opt for the British Astute-class subs, and to build at least the first two in UK yards while training up teams to do more of the subsequent construction here. Yesterday’s finalised FTA would make that skills transfer much easier.”

Mr Abbott says the Australia-UK FTA “perfectly complements the recent AUKUS agreement”.

“Given that we’ve had a US trade deal since the Howard era, it’s the economic piece that completes the overall AUKUS strategic partnership,” he writes.

Mr Abbott says Britain should now be allowed to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade deal, together with Taiwan and South Korea, in a show of “democratic solidarity”. He says China, which has also applied to join the gold-standard agreement, should be rejected for membership of the 11-nation agreement.

“There’s no way China could now credibly be admitted to any trade bloc, given its proven readiness to weaponise trade against countries like us,” Mr Abbott says.

The text of the FTA, released on Friday, confirmed Australia was successful in watering down British demands for “substantive” references in the agreement to climate change goals.

Rather than specific climate reduction targets, as the UK had sought, the text of the agreement commits both countries to addressing climate change, including under the Paris agreement, and stressing “the importance of achieving their goals”.

British high commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell told the ABC that both countries had endorsed their Paris commitments, including “keeping (temperature rises of) 1.5 degrees within reach”.

Scott Morrison previously argued climate goals had no place in a trade deal. “In trade agreements, I deal with trade issues. In climate agreements, I deal with climate issues,” he said in September.