Australia, U.K. ‘confident’ of free trade agreement by year-end

Australia and the U.K. are both “very confident” that their free trade agreement would be finalized by year-end, said David McCredie, chief executive officer of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re inching ever closer,” McCredie told Sky News Australia. “We’re really close, not quite there yet, but watch this space and I don’t think it’s very far away at all.”

Britain announced an agreement-in-principle with Australia in June, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson looked to widen post-Brexit commercial ties with nations around the world. The full text has yet to be finalized.

There’s “real excitement about the opportunity to not just to get the deal done, but to really uplift the trade and particularly the investment and the mobility between the two countries,” McCredie told Sky.