Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have welcomed the UK Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, to Australia and to Canberra today and to have commenced with her further discussions in relation to the future Australia-UK trading relationship. We have already had a trade working group established with the UK to work through the uncertainties of Brexit and to look at the potential scoping of a future free trade agreement and future negotiations, and today we very strongly reaffirmed our commitments to one another, between our respective countries, to launch those FTA negotiations as soon as possible following the UK's exit from the European Union Customs Union. Australia has a great track record of being able to quickly and effectively negotiate trade agreements under a coalition government. It is the success of our government in sealing agreements such as the TPP, as well as those with major North Asia economies and elsewhere, that is delivering record export volumes, and we want to ensure this continues through such negotiations with the UK.