On the Australian side, all that remains is for Governor General David Hurley to give formal approval in the next few days to these documents, which are crucial for the country.

For them to become a law, reciprocal agreements (or ratifications) are also needed in the United Kingdom and India, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell told Australia’s ABC on Tuesday.

Farrell was confident that the agreement with India would be ratified in the next few weeks and that the UK deal will be approved by early 2023.

Bilateral trade between London and Canberra was about 12.887 billion dollars in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, and for London, a historic partner, this agreement would mean a slight increase in trade.

Australia and the United Kingdom penned a free trade agreement on December 17, 2021, the first after the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU), a bloc with which Canberra is also negotiating a similar accord.

The free trade agreement between the parties was inked in April 2022 with a view to boosting Indo-Pacific development by increasing bilateral trade in key areas such as textiles, pharmaceuticals and information technology.

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