Queen's Speech 2022 - Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill

Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill

“My Government will continue to champion international trade, delivering jobs across the country and growing the economy. Legislation will be introduced to enable the implementation of the United Kingdom’s first new Free Trade Agreements since leaving the European Union.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

● Ensure the UK can comply with the obligations in the Free Trade Agreements with both Australia and New Zealand when they come into force by making the necessary changes to the UK’s domestic procurement regulations.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

• ●  Delivering the key Brexit benefit of our own independent trade policy by enabling the UK to implement its first ‘from scratch’ Free Trade Agreements in over 50 years to boost the UK economy. The Australia and New Zealand deals will each remove tariffs on 100 per cent of UK goods exports to those countries, benefiting UK businesses.

• ●  Supporting the Government’s levelling up agenda. The UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements will benefit all parts of the UK, delivering economic opportunities across a range of sectors and businesses including for financial services in Scotland, distillers in Northern Ireland, aerospace manufacturers in the West Midlands, fintech in Wales and carmakers in the North East.

• ●  Driving economic growth across the UK. These agreements will help boost the UK’s economy and provide significant opportunities for UK businesses to grow and take advantage of the preferential market access which we have secured.

  The main element of the Bill is to:

● Provide a power to make changes to UK procurement regulations to implement the obligations in the Government Procurement chapters of the Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Agreements.

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend and apply across the UK.

Key facts

• ●  The Bill is a key step in allowing the Government to deliver the significant benefits of these two Agreements by making the changes to the procurement rules needed to avoid the UK being in breach of the Agreements upon their entry into force.

• ●  The Government’s economic analysis of the UK-Australia Agreement predicts that it will increase trade with Australia by 53 per cent and boost the UK economy by £2.3 billion.

• ●  The Government’s economic analysis of the UK-New Zealand Agreement predicts that it will increase trade with New Zealand by 59 per cent and boost the UK economy by £800 million.