CANBERRA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will this week urge Australia and the United Kingdom to sign a comprehensive free trade deal to come into effect the day Britain leaves the European Union (EU).
Abbott, who was ousted as Prime Minister by Malcolm Turnbull last year, is a self-confessed convert who now supports the Brexit agreement, and he will tell a high-profile breakfast tomorrow that once Britain leaves the EU there should be "full recognition of each country's credentials and standards".
"If a motor car could be registered in the UK, it should be registrable in Australia; if a trade qualification is recognized in Australia, it should be recognized here," Abbott's speech, obtained by News Corp on Monday, reads.
"There should be no tariffs or quotas whatsoever on any goods traded between our two countries there should be no exceptions, no carve-outs, nothing.
"(There should be) an entirely seamless economic relationship based on free entry of goods, mutual recognition of services and standards, and easy entry of qualified people".
It was his government which drove the historic free trade deal between China and Australia (ChAFTA), and Abbott will on Tuesday say that it was only logical to sign a comprehensive FTA with Australia's oldest and closest ally.
"For the first time in a generation, Aussies shouldn't face a passport queue at Heathrow," Abbott will tell the breakfast in London.
"Britons and Australians already have more than 200 years' experience of each other, so why not allow them more freely to travel and work in each other's country?"
Abbott believes lawmakers should begin to draft a free trade deal immediately so that it can be implemented as soon as Brexit formally happens.
Such an FTA, Abbott will say, could pave the way for Britain to create similar free trade deals with other, Commonwealth nations such as New Zealand and Singapore.
