Prime Minister Scott Morrison is greeted by British PM Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street,London,on Monday.Credit:Getty Images
Brexit has forced the United Kingdom to look beyond its own horizons but the coronavirus pandemic has turned Australia inwards. The so-called “quiet Australians” who propelled Morrison to an unlikely election victory in 2019 aren’t focussed on international trade right now.
And while the new economic pact will be helpful to some Australian business and workers,it won’t make a huge difference against the backdrop of a strong post-recession economy and established export markets in Asia.
Morrison could have happily left Downing Street on Tuesday morning without signing an in-principle agreement and asked for more weeks or months to continue negotiations over tricky issues such as agricultural access and work visas.
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That,however,would have been a disaster for Johnson. The British Prime Minister has been hungry for a resolution because striking the first trade deal since Britain left the EU on January 1 helps him argue that Brexit has indeed given the UK the freedom to seek its own deals on its own terms.
It doesn’t matter that the overall gains are small:Whitehall officials have predicted a deal with Australia might lift GDP in the UK by £500 million ($914 million) a year. That would lift the UK’s economy by a grand 0.02 per cent.
But there are other compelling motivations for a deal. It will helpsmooth the way for Britain to join the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnershipand sends a good message to less market-friendly nations that like-minded countries are still committed to open trading.