UK open for business first day after Brexit

Blueprint to start global trade deals and keep EU customs rules for two years to ensure a smooth switch

BRITAIN will today demand that it is allowed to start striking trade deals the day after Brexit – while creating a temporary EU customs deal to prevent border chaos.

Brexit Secretary David Davis will set out plans to begin ‘negotiating bold new trade relationships around the world’ as soon as the country leaves the EU in March 2019.

But he will ask Brussels to keep in place current customs rules that prevent goods having to be checked as they go between Britain and the EU for an interim period, which could last up to two or three years.

Mr Davis will argue that such a deal, where the UK mimics the EU’s tariffs and rules on customs, would give more time for a smooth switch to the new trading regime, which would benefit businesses on both sides of the Channel. Ministers have been warned about the strain ports could be put under if they face a sudden increase in bureaucracy for dealing with goods entering and leaving the country.

Mr Davis will argue that while maintaining a temporary customs arrangement, the country must be allowed to begin developing a trade policy that makes it ‘more outward-looking than ever before’ as soon as possible.

‘As we exit the EU, we must not only seek to secure our existing markets, but also to tap into new, growing markets across the globe’, he will say.

Under EU rules, member states are forbidden from striking their own trade deals with other countries. The Government will insist that it is allowed to begin this work as soon as it leaves the EU, even if the current EU customs regime remains in place on a temporary basis. But Brussels may put ministers under pressure to promise that these new deals will only come into force at the end of the interim period.

In the longer term, Mr Davis will say he is seeking ‘the most frictionless customs arrangement anywhere’, with minimal checks and paperwork on goods going between the EU and UK.

One option being put forward by Mr Davis would see the UK manage a new customs border with administration streamlined to the ‘fullest extent possible’ using technology.

He will also float plans for a customs partnership with the EU that would negate the need for a customs border between the UK and the rest of the bloc.

Negotiations on future customs arrangements are not due to be discussed during the next round of Brexit talks to be held in Brussels at the end of this month.

The European Commission has said progress first needs to be made on agreeing the divorce bill before work can begin on the future relationship between the EU and UK.

But Downing Street said it was pushing forward with setting out its plans in order to help businesses both in Britain and across the continent.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said yesterday: ‘We have had the first round of the negotiations and those talks have shown that many of the withdrawal questions can only be settled in light of the future partnership. So now is the time to set out our approach to that partnership to inform the negotiations and to provide citizens and business at home and across Europe with a deeper understanding of our thinking.’

Business leaders last night welcomed the Government’s plan to minimise disruption to trade.

Josh Hardie, deputy directorgeneral of the Confederation of British Industry, said he was encouraged that the papers propose a time-limited interim period and a customs system that is as barrier-free as possible.

He added: ‘All efforts should be made to deliver a single-step transition, so that businesses don’t have to adapt twice.’

But Labour MP Chris Leslie, a leading supporter of the Open Britain campaign group, accused ministers of ‘wanting to have their cake and eat it’.

He said: ‘It is a fantasy to pretend we can have the freest and most frictionless trade possible with our largest partner when the Government remain intent on pulling Britain out of the customs union.’

Downing Street last night announced that Theresa May will embark on a visit to Japan at the end of this month in a bid to boost Britain’s post-Brexit trade.

The Prime Minister, who is currently in Switzerland on holiday, will be received by emperor Akihito and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Mrs May will be accompanied on the trip by business leaders from a range of sectors.

÷Former Ukip donor Arron Banks has written to every voter in Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd’s constituencies to try to get them deselected.

The Chancellor, MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, and the Home Secretary, MP for Hastings and Rye, favour a ‘ softer Brexit’ than tycoon Mr Banks, chairman of the campaign group Leave.EU.

‘More outward looking than ever’

HOW the Bremoaner camp loves to sneer that the Government has no coherent idea of ‘what Brexit will look like’. Ministers are vague and muddled, they say, and don’t have a clue where they’re taking us.

Just last weekend, former foreign secretary and arch-Remainer David Miliband said: ‘Our negotiating position is a mystery.’

But, whisper it softly, over the past two days we have begun to see that mystery being solved.

First, we had a joint article by Chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, in which they stated unequivocally that we will leave the customs union and single market on the day we leave the EU in March 2019 – albeit with a time-limited interim period to smooth the transition.

Now the Brexit department has put more flesh on the bones in an official policy paper. During the interim period Britain will abide by the rules of the customs union to ensure ‘frictionless trade’ continues – but at the same time will negotiate new trading agreements with the wider world.

In the longer term, the paper proposes a new customs partnership with the EU, in which border checks on goods would be minimised, or possibly dropped altogether.

True, there are other big issues to address, not least our future relationship with the single market. But there’s no doubt that a Brexit strategy – and an eminently workable one – is taking shape.

And it’s in the EU’s interests as much as ours that these negotiations succeed – arguably more so, as Britain buys £60billion a year more in goods and services from EU countries than we sell to them.

So now it’s over to Brussels. The ball is firmly in their court.