Johnson: trade relies on customs union exit
BORIS JOHNSON today warns that staying in the customs union, or any version of it, will leave the UK unable to form new global partnerships.
Following his trip to South America the Foreign Secretary says doing so would make Britain unattractive to new trading partners, reducing the opportunity for growth.
Speaking after his visit to Peru, Chile and Argentina, Mr Johnson says there are “realms of gold” to be won with new trade deals but these can only be negotiated if the UK is able to offer “unhindered and complicated” opportunities.
His latest remarks come just days after he warned the Prime Minister she must not betray the country by keeping the UK in the customs union. It came amid claims that a so-called backstop option to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland could be used to keep the EU and UK linked by the back door.
Speaking in Peru, he said the backstop must only ever be a time-limited last resort and urged Theresa May to focus on securing a deal to allow Brit- ain to do “unhindered” trade deals as soon as the UK leaves the union in 2019.
Building on that message he warns today that Britain has become too “Eurocentric” and abandoned trade links with South America and other nations in favour of closer ties to France and Germany, resulting in a “pitiful” share of trade with countries such as Peru.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph Mr Johnson says Brexit is the opportunity to rectify this, but only if the UK gets the
right terms with the EU from the beginning.
His warning comes as Jacob Rees -Mogg urged the Prime Minister to be “stronger” in her dealings with the EU as he called on her to threaten not to pay the so-called Brexit divorce bill unless a new trade agreement is reached.
He appeared on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, where he was accompanied to the studio by Peter Theodore Alphege, aged 9, his eldest son, who wore a matching suit, evoking memories of newspaper photographs of Mr Rees-mogg as a 12-year-old, wearing a suit and reading the Financial Times.
Mr Rees-mogg, who heads up a powerful committee of backbench probrexit MPS and who has been tipped as a future leader of the party, denied he would challenged Mrs May for her job but warned she has made a “mistake” in her negotiations on the customs union.
Mr Mogg told Andrew Marr: “The Prime Minister said in her Mansion House speech that she wasn’t going to do this, I think that is a mistake.
“I think it is the obvious negotiating position to have. Bear in mind the Irish economy is heavily dependent on its trade with the United Kingdom, it is overwhelmingly in the interests of the Republic of Ireland to maintain an open border with the United Kingdom.
“I think, if you are going into a negotiation, you should use your strongest cards and just to tear one of them up and set hares running on other issues is, I think, an error.” He also said the proposed backstop is a “real problem”.
Issuing his own warning, Mr Johnson writes: “Our Latin American partners are emphatic: if this is to work, we must come fully out of the EU customs union; and there is a lesson from Latin America.
“The continent is divided in two. On the right there is Mercosur, a customs union comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay; and on the left hand side is the Pacific Alliance – a freetrading, free-market grouping – Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, that operate their own trade policies.
“I will not enter into South American controversy except to say that I heard plenty of grumbles against the onesize-fits-all tariffs of Mercosur… and there is absolute unanimity that if we are to be a valid trading partner, then we must take back control – as the PM has said – of our tariff schedules, and do deals that are unhindered and uncomplicated. If we can get it right, the opportunities are vast.”