Vital free trade bills breeze through first step

The Albanese government is one step closer to legislating free-trade agreements with Britain and India after both bills sailed through the lower house on Monday.

Trade Minister Don Farrell. Picture: Che Chorley

The Albanese government is one step closer to legislating free-trade agreements with Britain and India after both bills sailed through the lower house on Monday.

Legislation for both the UK and India free-trade agreements passed the lower house with unanimous support, paving the way for their introduction to the upper house on Tuesday.

The government is pushing to ratify the deals before the end of the year to ensure Australian exporters benefit from two tariff cuts in quick succession, with the first round of cuts to occur on the deal’s first day in force followed by a second cut on January 1.

Trade Minister Don Farrell is also expected to welcome World Trade Organisation director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in parliament on Tuesday on her first visit to Australia after they worked together to deliver trade outcomes at the WTO’s ministerial conference in Geneva this year.

When the Australia-India agreement enters force, more than 90 per cent of Australian goods will enter India duty free while high Indian tariffs on agricultural products including sheep meat, wool, cotton, seafood and macadamia nuts will be removed.

Once the UK deal is in force, more than 99 per cent of Australian goods will enter the UK duty free, including sheep meat, beef, dairy, sugar and wine, and provide enhanced opportunities for Australians to live and work in the UK.

It comes after a joint parliamentary committee on treaties last week recommended the deals with both countries be ratified.

Senator Farrell said he expected full support across the parliament when the legislation goes to a vote this week.

“The government has done what we said we would,” he said.

“We have worked hard to expeditiously advance all processes necessary, to ensure Australia is able to ratify both trade agreements before the end of 2022 and be in a position to implement both trade agreements before the end of 2022.

“Given the enthusiasm from former government ministers, I expect full support from the opposition bench in the Senate when the legislation goes to a vote this week.”

Anthony Albanese discussed the deals with both British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali last week.

The Prime Minister announced he would travel to India in March in a bid to deepen economic and social ties between the countries.

Mr Albanese also revealed he spoke to Mr Sunak about the UK deal amid Australian concerns that British enthusiasm for the deal had cooled.

Britain claimed the deal was worth $18.4bn to the UK’s economy, but a cross-party UK parliamentary trade committee warned then-prime minister Boris Johnson against “overselling the benefits” of the agreement.

Former Environment Department secretary George Eustice told British MPs last week that the deal was “not very good” and that the UK “gave away far too much for far too little in return”.