As the UK-Australia trade deal comes into force, those close to the negotiations reflect on their dramatic — and farcical — climax.

‘Your boss has conceded the whole kingdom’, Australian negotiator said to have told Liz Truss.

‘It gives the Australians the ability to say, ‘we’ll dig in – here are our terms, but we’re not going to budge’.

Dave Sharma says ‘megaphone diplomacy’ was behind British government suggesting Dan Tehan was a novice.

Allies of UK trade secretary Liz Truss accused of launching an ‘unprovoked attack’ on Dan Tehan on the eve of their meeting.

The tenth round of Australia – European Union Free Trade Agreement (Australia -EU FTA) negotiations took place virtually from 9 – 19 March. Through more than 60 video conferences, we made substantive progress on a range of issues across the FTA and engaged on our respective market access interests.

Australia’s ABC News said the comments were greeted “with a mixture of disbelief and laughter” in Canberra.