Ammon News - A trade deal between the UK and Australia has been agreed between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his counterpart, Scott Morrison, the BBC reported.

Downing Street said the new pact meant British products such as cars, Scotch whisky, biscuits and ceramics would be cheaper to sell to Australia.

However, there has been concern from UK farmers worried they may be undercut on price and standards.

The deal is the first to be built from scratch since the UK left the EU, according to the BBC.

It is seen as an important step towards the UK joining a wider Asia Pacific free-trade agreement.

Boris Johnson said in a statement: "Our new free trade agreement opens fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers, as well as young people wanting the chance to work and live on the other side of the world."

But the newly formed cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission reacted with alarm to the deal, which it says has not been properly seen nor examined by parliament.

"The prime minister has just spent the weekend arguing with our closest allies about a treaty that he pushed through parliament with limited scrutiny," said Labour's Hilary Benn, who chairs the commission.

"This highlights the risks of rushing through deals for short-term political gain while failing to understand the long-term consequences."

The UK government has signed a long list of trade deals over the past year, but they have been rollovers of those the UK already had as part of the EU.

The new deal could allow the UK to eventually join a wider Asia Pacific free-trade agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which the government says could provide British farmers with huge opportunities.

The government says British farmers will be protected by a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years, using tariff rate quotas and other safeguards.

But some UK farmers have concerns there will be no meaningful safeguards in place to stop farmers being undercut by cheap imports.

Farmers in Australia are allowed to use some hormone growth promoters, pesticides, and feed additives that are banned in the UK.

The UK Trade and Business Commission is worried that Australian farming operates on a scale that UK counterparts cannot compete with, saying Australia contains eight of the 10 largest farms in the world, including one which is larger than Israel.

According to the UK's National Farmers Union, Australian farmers are able to produce beef at a lower cost of production, and could undercut farmers in the UK.

Ministers in Scotland have also raised worries about the farming industry being overwhelmed if the market is flooded with lower standard goods.

In 2019-20, trade in goods and services between Australia and the UK was valued at £20.1bn.

The government says the deal will boost UK industries that employ 3.5 million people across the country.

Metals, wine and machines have formed the biggest goods exports from Australia to the UK, while Australia's main UK imports are cars, medicines and alcoholic drinks.

Trade in meat between the two countries is small at present, with 14% of sheep meat imports to the UK coming from Australia and just 0.15% of all Australian beef exports going to the UK.

"A deal would be good for my exports if there's a drop in the tariffs but if we start importing more I might be faced with more competition here," says Mary Quicke, owner of Devon-based artisan cheesemaker Quicke's.

She exports about 10% of her produce to Australia, but is more concerned about Europe. "I would rather they had another look at the Brexit deal and ironed out a lot of the problems there.

"There's a dreadful amount of paperwork for exporting to the EU right now, it's a complete nightmare.

"I want to preserve our beautiful patchwork of British farms, so I'm cautious. Our milk is produced with half the carbon footprint of milk worldwide so it's really important that we don't just create a worse environmental footprint."

The deal marks the end of what has essentially a 50-year lock-out for Australian farmers, who have struggled to navigate Brussels' restrictions, tariffs and quotas.

The president of the Australian National Farmers' Federation said it had been very difficult to break into the UK because it was "way too expensive and way too far".

Australian farmers have also been looking to diversify due to the increased tensions between Australia and China. In the past year, China has imposed tariffs and restrictions on everything from Australian beef, barley and wine, to rock lobster and coal.