Since leaving the EU, Britain has been able to pursue an independent trade policy, signing its own trade deals with other countries and trade blocs.
It has already agreed post-Brexit deals with Japan and the EU, among others.
As the government targets boosting exports to £1 trillion by 2030, how is Global Britain faring in key trade deal negotiations?
Australia
Australia and the UK announced an agreement in principle in June and David McCredie, chief executive officer of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce, told Bloomberg that both sides are “very confident” that it will be finalised by the end of the year-end, according to.
The FTA will make British products like cars, Scotch whisky, biscuits and ceramics cheaper to sell into Australia. Brits under 35 will be able to travel and work in Australia more freely.
Australia will gain greater access to the British market for its agricultural produce, but British farmers will be protected by a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years and other safeguards.
The UK-Australia trade relationship was worth £13.9 billion last year.
New Zealand
The BBC reports that Britain agreed a trade deal with New Zealand in October, removing tariffs on UK goods including clothing, ships and bulldozers, and on New Zealand goods including wine, honey and kiwi fruits.
Professionals such as lawyers and architects will be able to work in New Zealand more easily, the government said.
Like the deal with Australia, British farmers have criticised the deal as opening them up to unfair competition, says the NFU.
Now that an agreement in principle is in place, the details of the deal will continue to be negotiated by the government and New Zealand.
The New Zealand trade department has not announced a timeline, but its chart shows a nine-part process, with only the first part concluded.
CPTPP
The UK’s trade commissioner for the Asia-Pacific region said the UK is “on track” to achieve its aim of joining the CPTPP next year.
CPTPP represents about 13% of global GDP and includes some of the fastest growing economies, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Free Malaysia Today reports that during a recent visit to Malaysia, former trade minister Liz Truss said: “We expect to be able to join the CPTPP by the end of 2022.”
US
Britain remains keen to do a trade deal with the US, but the world’s biggest economy is less interested.
Boris Johnson’s meeting with Joe Biden in September failed to move the dial on a trade deal, according to the BBC.
The FT has also reported that the UK is unlikely to secure a suspension of Trump-era aluminium and steel tariffs, with the White House keen to put pressure on the UK in its negotiations with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
According to City AM, the UK will switch it attention to attempting to do deals with individual states, such as California.
India
According to the Hindu Times, negotiations between India and the UK could be delayed to January 2022. Trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan had been due to meet her counterpart at the cancelled WTO conference in Geneva this week.
India had been aiming for an interim ‘early harvest’ trade pact involving early tariff or market access concessions on certain key “high priority products and services”.
A series of trade working groups has been agreed to help both sides “better understand each other’s position on potential chapter areas in any trade deal including tariffs, standards, IP and data regulation”, the government announced.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
The government has called for input from business on future trading arrangements with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with a public consultation closing on 14 January.
The GCC - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – is a market for almost £22bn of British exports and bilateral trade worth over £30bn in 2020.
Britain’s investment minister, Gerry Grimstone, told a conference in Dubai that a deal will be concluded within 12 months, reports FX Empire.
Israel
The Guardian reports Britain and Israel signed a 10-year trade and defence pact in London on Monday (2 December), promising cooperation on issues such as cybersecurity and a joint commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
The agreement will pave the way to negotiating a bespoke UK-Israel free trade agreement.
Writing in the Telegraph, foreign secretary Liz Truss said the countries had a trading relationship worth £5bn, led by companies like Rolls-Royce supplying jet engines to Israel’s national airline and the Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva providing one in six of the NHS’s prescription medicines.
