Boris fast-tracks Aussie trade deal

Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson agree to move quickly on a post-Brexit trade deal.

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson meet for a bilateral meeting. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has struck an agreement with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to move quickly to a post-Brexit trade deal, as Australia’s two largest trading partners, China and the US, slug it out in an escalating tariff war.

Mr Johnson has also indicated that Britain is poised to ratchet up its presence in the Pacific, alongside Australia and France, in a broadening strategic alliance with the US as China advances into the region.

The Prime Minister emerged from a bilateral meeting with Mr Johnson yesterday at the G7 leaders summit in Biarritz, France, confident that Australia would be among the first countries to secure a post-Brexit trade deal. Mr Morrison told The Australian that as soon as Britain formally broke from Europe by October 31, ­Australia would be “ready to go”.

“It was a very warm meeting,” Mr Morrison said. “We will be at the starting line as soon as that moment arrives.”

He said Mr Johnson was “confident on where he was heading on Brexit”.

Mr Johnson’s move to boost Britain’s presence in the Pacific comes after the latest round of talks between Mr Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron about stepping up the French presence in the region, ­including joint development projects with Australia.

Last year, Mr Johnson, then Britain’s foreign secretary, ­announced his intention to open three new diplomatic missions in the Pacific, one in Vanuatu.

“(Britain) are very interested in our work in the Pacific and they want to be a part of that and our ­respective interests there,” Mr Morrison said. “They are already lifting their presence. They know we are the leading provider of aid and they want to be part of what we are trying to do.”

“It was a very warm meeting,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. Picture: Getty

Mr Morrison said the two leaders had discussed the global ramifications of the US-China trade row. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Britain is Australia’s eighth-largest trading partner, with $26.9 billion in two-way trade last year. Its ­direct foreign investment in Australia was the second-largest after the US at $574.8bn in 2018.

Mr Morrison is attending the G7 as an observer — the first time an Australian prime minister has been invited to meet the exclusive club of world leaders. He has managed to secure agreements from leaders on deeper global action on preventing and removing violent extremism from the internet.

Following the meeting with Mr Johnson, Mr Morrison was due to address a session on maritime pollution on his push for global action on reducing plastics in the oceans.

He was also due to lead discussions on further action to pressure social media platforms to do more to remove violent extremism and terrorism from the internet.

Australia has led on this issue since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand in March, having secured agreement at the G20 in June, and now at the G7, for further commitments to impose transparency and voluntary reporting rules on companies such as Google and Facebook.

Donald Trump, who met Mr Johnson a day earlier at the summit, said America would also be aggressively pursuing a post-­Brexit deal with Britain.

The summit had been written off as doomed before it began, with Mr Macron, the official host, declaring there would not be a joint communique issued at the completion of the two days of talks. Mr Macron said there was little point, indicating his belief that the US President would not sign off on a joint statement.

Mr Trump plunged the conference into a state of confusion on Sunday when he said he regretted the latest round of tariff hikes imposed by the US and China and that he had had “second thoughts”. The White House later clarified that Mr Trump meant he had been having second thoughts about not going harder on China. However, comments by China’s top trade negotiator, Liu He, yesterday indicated a softening in Beijing’s position, raising hopes of an end to the trade war.

A surprise visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Biarritz also left some officials stunned yesterday, as some of the closed-door discussions concerned the US-led military taskforce to the Persian Gulf aimed at protecting shipping and oil tankers from Iranian harassment in the Strait of Hormuz.

Before heading into their first bilateral meeting in their new roles as prime ministers, Mr Johnson struck up a casual banter with Mr Morrison and asked him: “Are you enjoying this thing?” Mr Morrison replied that it had been a different experience being an observer.

Mr Morrison also congratulated the British leader on the third Ashes Test win.

“Well, we’ve got two to go. We’re not taking anything for granted,” Mr Johnson said. “It was a hell of a game.”