The UK has finally signed a trade deal with Australia – the first with a new partner since Brexit – but it will add just 0.08 per cent to the economy and not until 2035.
The agreement will scrap tariffs on UK exports, allow young backpackers to visit for longer and give greater certainty to scientists, lawyers and other professionals seeking visas, ministers say.
But the signing – six months after an outline deal was announced by Boris Johnson – is certain to trigger criticism that British farmers are being sacrificed in the desperation to agree it.
Liberal Democrats warned it would lead to farmers being undermined by imports produced to lower standards of animal welfare and environmental protection.
And the TUC said it amounted to a “threat to working people while contributing almost nothing to our economy”.
Tariffs will be scrapped immediately on imported beef and lamb, up to a “cap” on sales expected to be many times the current level of Australian meat sold in this country.
There is also anger over the UK secretly dropping a pledge to bind Australia to the 1.5C global temperature rise target at the heart of the Cop26 climate negotiations in Glasgow, last month.
The Independent understands that the agreement – which will now finally be published – will contain no specific reference to a 1.5C rise, beyond which the world is at risk from runaway climate change.
The head of the advisory climate change committee, Tory peer John Gummer, has condemned the deal for undermining climate goals. Officials admit to “pressure” on shipping emissions.
There are also fears that beef from farms where forests with endangered species are destroyed will end up in the UK, although beef injected with hormones will be outlawed.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, called the signing “a landmark moment” and proof of what the UK “can achieve as an agile, independent sovereign trading nation”.
“This agreement is tailored to the UK’s strengths, and delivers for businesses, families and consumers in every part of the UK – helping us to level up,” she said.
But Greenpeace warned of the danger of “kicking off a race to the bottom for our environmental standards and for action on climate”.
“What people will want to know is whether this trade deal will stop beef from farms involved in destroying habitats for koalas and other endangered species from reaching our supermarket shelves,” said John Sauven, the group’s executive director.
The government says the agreement is expected to:
* Boost gross domestic product (GDP) by £2.3bn a year, or 0.08 per cent, by 2035 – a tiny fraction of the 4 per cent slump from leaving the EU single market and customs union.
* Boost trade by £10.4bn by the same date – a 53 per cent increase – of which £6.2bn will be UK exports to Australia.
* Increase sales of cars, Scotch whisky and UK fashion, for example, by removing tariffs.
Officials dismiss fears of Australian meat flooding the UK market, threatening domestic farmers, on the grounds that the country’s target markets will continue to be in Asia.
But TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: ”This deal poses a threat to working people while contributing almost nothing to our economy.
“Yet again the UK government has agreed a trade deal with no effective means to enforce fundamental labour rights or protections for migrant workers from exploitation.
“And there are other serious issues which could threaten workers’ rights and conditions, like the failure to protect our public services and the lack of safeguards for how workers’ data or NHS data is used.”
Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesperson Tim Farron said that the deal “fails to protect our farmers in the long term”.
He added: “The Conservatives make promises of transitions, but all that means is delaying the inevitable – our farming communities being undermined by imported food that is produced to lower standards of animal welfare and environmental protection.”
