US talks are just the start of exciting new free-trade era

Today I will fly out to Washington DC to hold initial discussions with my American counterparts about the future trade and investment relationship between our two countries as we prepare to leave the European Union.

Trade between the two countries is already worth over £150billion a year, the US is the single biggest source of inward investment into the UK and together there is around $1trillion invested in each other’s economies.

This process marks the start of an exciting new chapter for the UK where, for the first time in over 40 years, we will be able to take advantage of the growing markets in the world and determine a trade relationship designed around Britain’s national interest.

Indeed, as the Prime Minister said in her speech at Lancaster House – when setting out her vision for Britain outside the EU at the start of the year – “we will take this opportunity to make Britain stronger, to make Britain fairer, and to build a more global Britain too”.

If we want to protect British jobs and prosperity and see our businesses expand, we need to engage with the markets that will produce the greatest wealth. The EU itself estimates that 90per cent of global growth in the next decade will come from outside Europe.

In my role as Secretary of State for International Trade, I have visited almost all of our fastest-growing trading partners. And in every country I found an almost limitless appetite for British goods, services and expertise.

I recently returned from a visit to Indonesia and Malaysia. Together with their ASEAN-5 neighbours in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, these countries make a region with a population larger than the EU. Yet the IMF projects their economic growth to be significantly higher – 30 per cent over the next five years for the ASEAN-5, compared with just 9 per cent for the EU.

While we cannot, under EU law, conclude any trade agreements before we actually leave, it is essential that we do a great deal of preparation over the coming months. This is what the Prime Minister set up the Department for International Trade (DIT) to do. We are further strengthening our capability and only yesterday we announced the appointment of a globally respected trade negotiator to join my department, tasked with sealing deals with the UK’s key trading partners when we leave the EU.

Internationally recognised expert Crawford Falconer will act as head of profession for trade negotiators and will bolster the civil service’s trade negotiation skills, bringing over 25 years of public service in trade and foreign affairs. It is a clear sign of the Government’s intent to negotiate new Free Trade Agreements in the future.

Since its formation in July 2016, the head count at DIT has increased to a global workforce of over 3,000 people. We are now ready to get the ability to conduct our own independent trade policy, helping British businesses to trade with thriving markets around the world – and creating more well-paid jobs here at home.

We want Britain to be able to negotiate its own trade agreements, and as we leave the EU that is what we will do. We also want tariff-free trade with Europe and cross-border trade there to be as frictionless as possible, so we will seek a deep and special partnership including a comprehensive free trade and customs agreement.

This will unlock the potential for a number of possibilities. We will be able to negotiate completely new Free Trade Agreements with countries where the EU currently has no arrangement and we will want to replicate agreements with countries such as South Korea.

As we begin our discussions in the United States, we will want to ensure that we champion British business and consumer interests and ensure continuity on our way to the prospect of a future free trade agreement.

It is a time to lift our eyes to a new and more global horizon with selfconfidence and optimism. Too many naysayers are trying to talk down the UK’s prospects. It is time to prove them wrong.

‘Too many naysayers are trying to talk down the UK’s prospects. It is time for us to prove them wrong’

The Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox is Secretary of State for International Trade, President of the Board of Trade, and MP for North Somerset