Hopes of trade deal with UK before Christmas scuppered

Australia’s hopes of finalising a free trade deal with the UK before Christmas are scuppered with Brexit negotiations coming first.

Hopes of a free trade deal with the UK have slipped, with Brexit negotiations taking precedence. Picture: Getty Images.

Australia’s hopes of finalising a free trade deal with the United Kingdom before Christmas has been scuppered, with Brexit negotiations with the European Union taking precedence.

The conclusion of the third round of talks last week has highlighted the slow progress and a fourth round of talks is now scheduled for February 2021.

In a statement posted last night on the Foreign Affairs and Trade website, the Australian government said “we continued to make progress’’.

That included ”substantive progress through text-based discussions on many issues in a positive atmosphere’’.

But the slow moving developments were underscored when the department announced it had only just begun the “first discussion of initial market access offers for trade in goods’’.

Both Australia and the UK negotiators had believed a deal would be smooth and quick because of the countries’ historic ties, common language and similar judicial systems.

Even when the talks were delayed by several months at the beginning of the year because of the coronavirus outbreak and strict lockdown in the UK, politicians and officials were still hopeful of a deal by the end of the year.

Just a month ago, before the latest round of talks, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Scott Morrison, telling the Prime Minister: “I am delighted we are doing a deal’’.

Mr Johnson said: “All the historical rivalry between our two countries, whether between the fans of Larwood or Bradman or Jonny Wilkinson versus the 2003 squad, the hysterical partisans of Marmite or Vegemite, there is a huge amount that unites us and we do together.

“And it’s fantastic to work with Scott in sticking up for things that both the UK and Australia believe in together and believe in passionately.

“Our common security, our principles, our belief in democracy, in fundamental freedoms and the rules-based international system.

“Of course, there is also the small matter of free trade and I’m delighted that we’re doing a deal.’’

Even Australia’s former prime minister Tony Abbott who has been informally liaising in the talks in his role on the UK’s Board of Trade said last month a deal was in the offing if the two sides didn’t sweat the small stuff.

Earlier this year the UK signed a free trade deal with Japan and also began negotiations with the United States.

Australia had been long touted to be the first because of informal understandings between Canberra and London that begun even before the EU Withdrawal Deal.

But the team of British negotiators have now prioritised a looming Brexit deadline of December 31, and have been concentrating on trying to finalise a deal with Brussels to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

Fishing rights, level playing field provisions and finalising the arbitrator for any treaty disputes has seen an EU-UK trade deal flounder for throughout the year long transition period.

In recent days the EU-UK talks have fluctuated and a no-deal Brexit still seems the most likely outcome. Mr Johnson has spruiked this as the ‘’Australian-option’’, code word for trading under WTO rules.