Shawdesh Desk:

A new trade deal between the UK and Australia will not harm British farmers’ livelihoods, said UK trade secretary.

Liz Truss denied that imports of Australian beef would flood the UK and said British export markets would grow.

The pact – the first to be built from scratch since the UK left the EU – will cover British goods such as cars, Scotch whisky, biscuits and ceramics.

But some UK farmers fear they may be undercut on price and standards.

Speaking to the BBC’s World at One programme, Ms Truss said: “At the moment there are extremely small quantities of Australian beef coming into the UK.

“So what we’d be looking at here is over time some of the EU imports lost due to Brexit being replaced by Australian imports.”

(BBC)