Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of potential merits of the proposal by Tony Abbot for a free trade deal between the UK and Australia that abolishes tariffs and quotas on all goods, gives mutual recognition of industry standards and qualifications and allows people to move freely between the two countries.

The UK and Australia have a strong trade relationship, with more than £8 billion in UK exports to Australia in 2015. We have established a UK-Australia Trade Working Group to develop this relationship further and start discussions on the option of a future ambitious and comprehensive UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement. The UK has not made assessments at this stage about any external proposals for a specific type of future agreement.