Australia’s deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has likened Brexit to a divorce in which he has promised to keep talking to both sides, on the eve of a trade visit to the UK and the European Union.
Joyce, the agriculture minister who hit the world stage when he told Johnny Depp’s Yorkshire terriers to bugger off back to the United States, will urge European representatives to embrace a free-trade agreement with Australia without fear of being swamped by agricultural products.
“I will argue that the Europeans should embrace an FTA with Australia,” he said. “European farmers have nothing to fear from improved trade with Australia as we are not in a position to swamp their markets,” Joyce said as he left on Friday.
In the same visit, he will meet Theresa May’s newly appointed secretary for environment, food and rural affairs, Michael Gove, as well as UK farmer groups to try to open up new opportunities as the country prepares to leave the EU.
Joyce said it was possible to deal with both on trade issues in order to sell more Australian produce, suggesting the post-Brexit issues between the UK and the EU would not dampen Australia’s enthusiasm for improving both markets.
Asked if Australia needed to favour one market over another given the post-Brexit negotiations, he told Guardian Australia: “When a couple gets divorced, I don’t choose a side, I keep talking to both.”
The leader of the rural-based National party with a colourful turn of phrase, Joyce will visit a Belgian brewery using Tasmanian hops and an Australian barbecue in Brussels to showcase Australian beef and lamb. He will also lead the Australian delegation at the biennial Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Ministerial Conference in Rome.
Soon after Britain voted to leave the EU the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, announced his intention to work towards a very open trade deal with the UK in his first phone call with Theresa May in July last year.
In April this year, Australia and the EU have concluded a joint scoping exercise on a future free-trade agreement.
Joyce said the Coalition government wanted to add to the recently completed free trade deals with China, Japan and South Korea to expand export opportunities and Australian jobs. He will meet the European agriculture commissioner, Phil Hogan.
Europe was Australia’s sixth-largest export market for agricultural products, Joyce said, valued at $3.1bn in 2016. But in spite of that, Australia had no capacity to swamp Europe or the UK.
“We can, however, deliver high-quality premium products to meet clear market demand,” he said.
Earlier this year British international trade secretary, Liam Fox, told an Australian parliamentary committee the May government wanted to expedite a free-trade deal with Australia. Fox committed the UK to do preparatory work on the new bilateral trade pact with Australia before leaving the EU in spring 2019.
Joyce said it was important after the election to reestablish connections and while he had necessarily spent long periods visiting Asia to promote agricultural trade, he had yet to visit the UK as deputy prime minister.
“Long before the European Union, Australia had a strong relationship with exports to the United Kingdom and we never lose sight of that – apart from always wanting with all countries to expand trade,” Joyce said.
He said there were opportunities in the UK’s large wine market, given Australian wine had lost some market share due to a slump.
