Trade Minister Dan Tehan says Australia’s approach to environmental issues is not one of the “major sticking points” which need to be overcome to seal a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.

“The discussions on the environment have been quite straightforward and are not one of the sticking points,” he said.

“We’re basically agreed on the approach that we’ll take on the environment.

“That is multilateral negotiations … where things like emissions reductions are negotiated but both countries are prepared to commit to work cooperatively on environmental issues including on emissions reduction, on technology which helps emissions reduction.

“All those things, that cooperative approach, we’ve been able to get agreement on.

“So that hasn’t been one of the major sticking points”.