AGREEMENT TO BENEFIT REGIONAL AUSTRALIA

The Federal Nationals have welcomed the historic Free Trade Agreement reached between Australia and the United Kingdom that will soon benefit Australian producers, farmers and consumers.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the in principle agreement will develop greater jobs and business opportunites for regional Australia.

“This game-changing Free Trade Agreement will allow more Australian primary producers and farmers to have improved access to the UK market, resulting in increased economic benefits for our regional communities,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

“Australia’s superior exports such as beef, sheep meat and sugar will be shipped to the UK tariff-free over the next decade which will provide an unparrelled opportunity for our producers to have greater access to this major international market.”

“The Nationals in Government are unwavering in our commitment to our regional communities.”

Deputy Leader of the Nationals David Littleproud said this is a great day for Australian agriculture that is set to reap the benefits from our 16th free trade agreement.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to re-establish a market for Australian farmers, lost when the UK joined the European Union,” Minister Littleproud said.

“Our farmers will have access to substantially increased duty-free quotas for beef, sheep meat sugar and dairy products, over above existing quotas.

“We currently export well under $700 million in food and agriculture goods to the UK, tariff quota access for beef alone would see our exports close to double.

“UK consumers are set to again benefit from having Australia’s high quality and safe agricultural products on their shelves and that is great news.

“Australia exports more than 70 per cent of what it produces and our farmers will also continue to focus on supplying markets on their doorstop. However, this Government is committed to always opening new doors and new opportunity to help our farming sector meet its $100 billion in farm gate production goal by 2030.”

Shane Manning