Minister wants out of EU customs union after Brexit
LONDON — Britain must leave the EU customs union to strike new trade deals after Brexit, the country’s trade minister said Tuesday, widening a major fissure within British politics over future trade relations with the bloc.
In Brussels, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator warned that the bloc and Britain have significant differences, with only months until a deadline to agree on a divorce deal.
U.K. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said 90 percent of global growth in the next 10 to 15 years will be outside Europe, and remaining inside the tariff-free EU trade zone “would limit our ability to reach new trade agreements with the world’s fastest-growing economies.”
In a speech in London, Fox branded customs union membership “a complete sellout of Britain’s national interests” because it would mean accepting EU rules after Britain leaves the bloc in 2019 without having a say over how they are made.
But Fox was contradicted by the trade department’s former top civil servant. Martin Donnelly, who left his job last year, said quitting the customs union was like “giving up a three-course meal … for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future.”
He said 60 percent of Britain’s trade is with the EU or with countries that have EU trade deals.
“You just have to look at the arithmetic — it doesn’t add up, I’m afraid,” Donnelly said.
Fox spoke a day after opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said his Labour Party would “seek to negotiate a new, comprehensive U.K.-EU customs union to ensure there are no tariffs with Europe.”