UK Releases Agreement in Principle of UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement

The United Kingdom released an agreement in principle for its new U.K.-Australia free trade agreement. Its four sections cover goods, services, mobility and state-owned enterprises and designated monopolies, a June 17 policy paper said. Both parties agreed to commit to provisions that promote fair competition between commercial SOEs and private enterprise, ensure SOEs can continue to operate as they do now, and allow both sides to share information about their SOEs and cooperate at the multilateral level. On the goods front, talks are ongoing to eliminate technical barriers to trade in specific goods such as British cars and Scotch whisky and Australian wine and organics (see 2106150023).