UK trade with Australia has jumped since the trade deal came into force in 2023

The Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement, which was signed on 17th December 2021, came into force on 31st May 2023. The deal eliminated 99% of tariffs on both sides.

2024 was the first full year the trade deal was in effect, and total trade between the two countries jumped by 29% compared with 2022 (the last full year before the trade deal came into effect).

Despite claims that Australia had rolled over naive Britain in the trade talks, Britain is running a trade surplus with Australia in both goods and services.

Here is the breakdown in trade from the Office of National Statistics:

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On the goods side, the UK exported £4.6 billion of goods to Australia and imported £2.5 billion of goods from Australia, giving Britain a trade surplus in goods of £2.2 billion.

On the services side, the UK exported £11.6 billion of services to Australia and imported £4.3 billion of services from Australia, giving Britain a trade surplus in services of £7.4 billion.

Thus the UK had a total trade surplus of £9.5 billion with Australia in 2024.

Here are the top five goods traded:

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Here are the top five services:

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"Other business services" include: Research and development, professional and management consulting services, technical services and trade related services.

Here are the regions trading the most with Australia:

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This is all much better than predicted when the trade deal was signed, and as both the UK and Australia are stable wealthy countries, trade between them should grow healthily.