Brexit: An Australian Perspective

Abstract

Post Brexit, the UK will need to negotiate a series of Free Trade Agreements --- more appropriately called Preferential Trade Agreements. The paper outlines the complexities of negotiating such agreements, sector by sector, based on Australian experience with FTAs. The dangers are illustrated by British experience of discrimination by European nations during the 19th Century. The complexities are illustrated by the need for detailed rules of origin, the impact of global supply chains and by the scope of contemporary FTAs, which extend to matters, referred in the Brexit negotiations as single market type issues, including regulatory convergence, competition policy, intellectual property, standards, professional and educational recognition. An FTA between the UK and Australia will not be difficult, subject to whatever discretion the UK retains on agricultural imports after the concessions it will have to make to the European Union in this respect. The paper discusses the future role of the European Court of Justice post Brexit. It sets out the centralising, centripetal approach that the European judiciary is likely to adopt in the future.