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After Brexit, the UK's trade deals with Australia and New Zealand began in force at midnight, but the economic impact may be relatively minimal.
The UK has made no trade changes since leaving the European Union, leading to the removal of tariffs on all UK goods exports to Australia and New Zealand. It also abolishes UK import tariffs on the majority of goods from Australia and New Zealand.
The government says the services markets have been opened up something welcomed by the Law Society, for example, and that red tape has also been slashed for digital trade and work visas.
Kemi Badenoch, the secretary of business and trade, said the deal was a win for the two companies.
Today is a historic moment as our first trade deals are negotiated after Brexit. In addition to our status as an independent trading nation, businesses will now be able to take advantage of our opportunities, resulting in economic growth, innovation, and higher wages. In the long term, the impact assessment of the deals shows that they would lift the UK gross domestic product GDP by around 2.3 bn in the long term compared to projected levels of GDP in 2035, in today s prices.
George Eustice, former environment secretary, admitted last November that the Brexit trade deal with Australia was not actually a very good deal for Britain.
Eustice said the UK has given away far too much for far too little in return as it strove to agree its first from scratch agreement.
Eustice said the then trade secretary Liz Truss set an arbitrary target to end heads of terms by the time of the G 7 summit, which placed the UK in a poor negotiating position.
After Brexit, former Tory minister Paul Levy lays down a trade deal with Australia.
The deal could allow younger Britons to experience Australia, thanks to the expansion of the shared Youth Mobility and Workaway Maker visa programs.
On July, the age limit for British applicants going to Australia will go from 30 to 35 years old, and British people will be able to stay in Australia for up to three years without having to meet specific work requirements.
We ll find out if Europe's cost of living squeezed eased this month, with new inflation data from France, Italy and Germany due. They are all expected to show a fall, Hewson said.
While it is expected to offer further encouragement that headline inflation is slowing in Europe, that is not the problem that is causing investors to sleepless nights. It s the level of core inflation and for that we ll have to wait until tomorrow and EU core CPI numbers for May, which aren t expected to show much sign of slowing.
And passengers in the UK are bracing for the first of three rail strikes this week as services in England come to a standstill amid a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
Members of the drivers' union Aslef will begin a 24 hour strike on Wednesday. The union also plans to strike on Saturday.
On these days, no trains will run on networks including Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink and Northern.