Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement on the UK; and if he will publish a report on that agreement since its implementation.

The Department’s impact assessment of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreements was published under the previous government on 16th December 2021. This impact assessment set out the potential long-run incremental economic impact of the FTA and is available on gov.uk. On a recent visit to Australia for the CPTPP Commission I saw how the FTA – and the trade advantages consequent upon our membership of the CPTPP – are being used.

The Department is currently considering our approach to FTA Monitoring, not least because we want to see how effectively FTAs are being used by UK businesses and we will provide an update on this in due course.