Britain's parliamentary trade committee has warned that the UK government is not overselling the benefits of its post-Brexit trade deals, citing shortcomings in its agreement with Australia, and calling for more time for lawmakers to scrutinise it.
The deal with Australia saw a lot of concessions given without Britain securing all possible benefits in return, according to the International Trade Committee.
The trade deal will not have the transformative effects that the ministers would like to claim, said Chair of the committee Angus MacNeil, a Scottish National Party SNP lawmaker.
This agreement sets a precedent for the future, as the first wholly new trade deal since Brexit.
It is important that the government learns from this experience and negotiates harder next time around to maximise gains and minimise losses for all economic sectors and parts of the UK. The lifting of almost all tariffs on agricultural imports came with insufficient protection for the sector, while the benefits for customers were unlikely to be noticeable, according to the committee.
Since Britain left the European Union at the beginning of 2021, the accord with Australia was the first free trade deal to be signed.
Britain said that the deal is expected to unlock annual bilateral trade worth 10.4 billion pounds and $18.2 billion Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan will appear in front of the committee to face questions on Wednesday after pulling out of an appearance last week due to an announcement on steel tariffs.
The committee said it had to publish its appraisal of the Australia trade deal before Ms Trevelyan because of the limited time allowed for parliamentary scrutiny of the deal.
If the government doesn't extend the scrutiny period, parliament can't stop it from ratification of the trade deal, but it said it would call for a vote to delay its implementation.
The deal's environmental impact and inclusion of provisions on forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking, and the inclusion of provisions on forced labour and human trafficking, despite the fact that Australian food will not be required to meet core UK food production standards, for example, was welcomed by MPs.
The deal with Australia is seen as a low hanging fruit amid more difficult free trade talks with the United States.
Britain has negotiated free trade agreements with New Zealand and is currently in negotiations for trade deals with Canada, India and Mexico.
The Australian government has been contacted for comment.