AFP, Hangzhou :
Britain and Australia have discussed negotiating a post-Brexit trade agreement, the two countries’ leaders said Monday at the G20 summit in China, as Britain seeks to secure its economic ties before quitting the EU.
“Britain’s made a very momentous and historic choice to leave the European Union,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said as he met his new British counterpart Theresa May by Hangzhou’s picturesque West Lake.
“We have already been engaged in discussions with you about what the free trade agreements may look like after that.”
In the wake of its vote to leave the European Union, Britain must renegotiate its access to the markets of the rest of the world, as well as those of the grouping it is leaving.
It is a huge task for the world’s fifth-biggest economy.
Australia is “determined” to provide its ally with support in negotiating new deals with other countries, Turnbull added.
Britain maintains a close relationship with its resource-rich former colony, and May said she was grateful for Turnbull’s offer of trade discussions.
Australia would be “one of the first countries we will be looking to”, she said, in what would be among the first such negotiations following the Brexit vote.
Britain and Australia have discussed negotiating a post-Brexit trade agreement, the two countries’ leaders said Monday at the G20 summit in China, as Britain seeks to secure its economic ties before quitting the EU.
“Britain’s made a very momentous and historic choice to leave the European Union,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said as he met his new British counterpart Theresa May by Hangzhou’s picturesque West Lake.
“We have already been engaged in discussions with you about what the free trade agreements may look like after that.”
In the wake of its vote to leave the European Union, Britain must renegotiate its access to the markets of the rest of the world, as well as those of the grouping it is leaving.
It is a huge task for the world’s fifth-biggest economy.
Australia is “determined” to provide its ally with support in negotiating new deals with other countries, Turnbull added.
Britain maintains a close relationship with its resource-rich former colony, and May said she was grateful for Turnbull’s offer of trade discussions.
Australia would be “one of the first countries we will be looking to”, she said, in what would be among the first such negotiations following the Brexit vote.
