Trade Minister slams Julia Gillard over post-Brexit trade deal comments

Simon Birmingham has hit back at Julia Gillard after the former prime minister played down the benefits of a post-Brexit trade deal.

Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, left, and British International Trade Secretary Liz Truss hold a press conference in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AP

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has hit back at Julia Gillard after the former prime minister played down the benefits of a post-Brexit trade deal, saying it was “little wonder” she failed to secure free trade deals herself.

Ms Gillard said in the UK over the weekend that any trade deal with Australia would be “no substitute” to what Britain would leave behind economically when it finally broke with the European Union.

Ms Gillard told the BBC while Australia was a “great trading nation” which would look forward to a deal, it would not provide a “economic bonanza” to Britain’s economy in a post-Brexit world.

“I do worry that people are starting to imagine that a trade deal with Australia is somehow a substitute for being on the doorstep of a market with 500 million people — it’s not,” she said on Friday.

"I do worry that people are starting to imagine that a trade deal with Australia is somehow a substitute for being on the doorstep of a market with 500 million people, it's not" says former Australian PM Julia Gillard on #Brexithttps://t.co/Ebm0h4vqYW #politicslive pic.twitter.com/1S9anRfSTu

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 4, 2019

Senator Birmingham and the Morrison government has been working for months on building a post-Brexit trading relationship with Britain. The UK trade secretary Liz Truss was in Australia last month for talks, and even attended the parliament’s annual Midwinter Ball.

Senator Birmingham told The Australian on Sunday that a post-Brexit deal would boost market opportunities denied to Australian businesses for decades.

It would also mark yet another free trade deal secured by the Coalition since it took over from Labor in 2013, he said.

“With this perspective, there is little wonder that the Gillard and Rudd Labor governments failed to start and conclude a free-trade agreement,” he said.

“Under the Liberal-National government our trade covered by trade deals has risen from 26 per cent to 70 per cent, helping Australia to achieve record trade surpluses.

“Deals with the EU and potentially the UK will help us reach our target of ensuring that around 90 per cent of our trade is covered by free trade agreements by 2022.

“The UK is already our eighth largest two-way trading partner, and a future trade deal would open up new market opportunities by lowering barriers that exist for Australian farmers and businesses.

“The potential of the UK market is well demonstrated by our wine industry, with Australian wine already accounting for one in every five bottles of wine sold in the UK, which is a record of success that we hope can be replicated by other parts of our economy.”

Two-way trade between the UK and Australia is currently worth nearly $27 billion. On her recent visit to Australia, Ms Truss said “free movement” allowing Australians to live and work visa-free in Britain could be part of a future trade deal with Australia.

Senator Birmingham said at the time that a UK trade deal could be a boon to Australia’s agricultural sector.

Ms Gillard’s Brexit trade deal smackdown is the second time in a week that she has broken with her usual reluctance to wade into Australian politics since she left The Lodge in 2013.

Ms Gillard also criticised the Coalition for its “regrettable’’ foreign aid budget in an appearance at a forum backed by Britain’s Conservative party last week.

Appearing at a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference in Manchester, England, where Australia was attacked for not spending enough money on the poorest countries in the world, the former prime minister defended Labor’s failure to meet a promise to increase aid to 0.5 per cent of GDP and turned her sights on the Coalition.

The only free trade deal secured under Ms Gillard’s tenure was an agreement with Malaysia in 2013.

The current Coalition government locked in three bilateral FTAs with Korea, Japan and China under Tony Abbott’s leadership. His successor Malcolm Turnbull then signed Australia up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2018.