Ahead of last weekend’s coronation of King Charles, Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese, New Zealand (NZ) PM, Chris Hipkins, and the UK PM, Rishi Sunak, announced on Friday that the UK trade deals with Australia and NZ will come into effect at midnight on 31 May.

The deal will give Australia and NZ progressively increasing tariff-rate quotas until they are eliminated completely after 10 years.

Following that, there will be a further five years when the UK can apply a volume safeguard on both NZ and Australian imports in exceptional market conditions, but after 15 years, there will be unlimited access to the UK market for beef, sheep meat and dairy products.

This deal means that from day one, 35,000 tonnes (t) of Australian beef can enter the UK tariff-free, rising in equal instalments to 110,000t in year 10.

On sheep meat, 25,000t will have access tariff-free from the start, rising to 75,000t in year 10.

Cheese will have a 24,000t quota immediately, rising to 48,000t in year five, while butter starts with a 5,500t quota, rising to 11,500t in year five.

NZ will start on day one with 7,000t of butter and 15,000t of cheese, rising to 24,000t and 48,000t respectively after five years.

Beef will start with a 12,000t quota on day one, rising to 38,820t after 10 years with a safe guard element for a further five years, then unlimited tariff-free trade.

In addition to existing sheep meat quota, a further 35,000t will be available in year one, rising to 50,000t between years five and 15, and completely liberalised thereafter.