Fox rebukes CBI for backing Labour stance

BRITAIN would be left with ‘one arm tied behind its back’ if it stays in the customs union after Brexit, Liam Fox will warn today.

In a riposte to Jeremy Corbyn and the CBI, the International Trade Secretary will set out the case for a ‘fully independent trade policy’ in a speech in London, warning that Britain’s economy will suffer if it tries to ‘cling’ to the EU after leaving the bloc. Dr Fox will warn against staying in the customs union, saying: ‘Without any say in how the rules were made, we would be in a worse position than we are today.

‘It would be a sell-out of Britain’s national interests.’

He will point out that the proportion of Britain’s exports head-

ing outside the EU has risen from 44 per cent to 57 per cent since 2005, and warn that staying in a customs union would make the UK less attractive to new trading partners.

‘The inevitable price of trying to negotiate with one arm tied behind our back is that we would become less attractive to potential trade partners and forfeit many of the opportunities that would otherwise be available to us,’ he will say. The CBI, which represents 190,000 companies, reacted with enthusiasm to Mr Corbyn’s Brexit speech, saying the Labour leader was putting ‘jobs and living standards first’.

Dr Fox’s intervention follows a warning from Australian high commissioner Alexander Downer that Britain will not get an independent free trade deal with his country if it remains in the customs union.

Mr Downer told BBC Radio 4: ‘If you leave the EU but remain in the customs union and single market, you won’t have a say in the EU making trade policy, nor will you have a say in the EU running the single market because you won’t be part of the decisionmaking process.

‘We won’t be able to make trade agreements with the UK; we will only be able to make trade agreements with the EU.’