Britain will "plant a flag" and signal its interest to join an Australian-led Trans Pacific Partnership after it withdraws from the European Union, its Minister of State for Trade says, as the world prepares for a reshuffle of the global trade order.

In the strongest comments on the British government's post-Brexit intentions to date, Baroness Rona Fairhead said Australia was one of its top trading priorities and the UK would look to begin bilateral discussions with Canberra through the technology, science and education sectors.

It will also look to establish London as a funding and facilitation hub for China's $US2 trillion Belt and Road initiative - a program that Australia has been wary of as China's power grows in the Pacific - but that Australian companies could take advantage of via Britain.

Britain's Minister of State for Trade Baroness Rona Fairhead in Melbourne on Tuesday Credit:Eddie Jim

Baroness Fairhead said she had been urged to make the UK a very strong global "champion for free trade" despite the political turmoil unleashed by Brexit, as it prepares to lose access to the EU's single market and force it renegotiate its terms world-wide.