, Columnist
Boris Johnson Faces His First Real Brexit Trade Test
What was the point of quitting the EU if you can't do trade deals with countries like Australia?
Some Tories have a beef with the Australia trade deal.
Photographer: RONALDO SCHEMIDT via Getty images.
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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet met this week to debate whether to approve the terms of a free-trade agreement with Australia. What, you might wonder, could be less controversial?
After all, there’s nothing more Brexity than free trade. In a set-piece speech in early 2020, Johnson promised that Britain would campaign for unfettered global commerce. He even namechecked a trio of liberalizing forefathers: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Richard Cobden. It was Cobden who called free trade “God’s diplomacy.”