We still want a free trade deal after we quit EU, says Davis
MINISTERS want to maintain ‘tariff-free’ trade with Europe even after Britain has left the EU, Brexit Secretary David Davis said yesterday.
Theresa May put immigration controls at the heart of her Brexit strategy this week, saying that any deal ‘must’ allow the UK to limit the number of migrants coming from Europe.
EU leaders have suggested that Britain cannot expect to enjoy tariff-free access to the single market unless it accepts free movement.
But Mr Davis yesterday said ministers have not given up hope of negotiating a comprehensive free trade deal. He said it was not in the interests of other EU countries to start a tariff war with Britain.
Speaking on a visit to Northern Ireland yesterday, he said: ‘What we will seek to do is to have tariff-free access, and we will be negotiating over an issue which I suspect is in the interest of the other members of the EU as well as us, to get a good trading relationship in the long run.’
Mr Davis also said the UK and Republic of Ireland want to retain an open border after Brexit – a key issue in Northern Ireland.
Andrew Tyrie, Tory chairman of the Commons Treasury committee, yesterday said it was vital that ministers pushed for tariff-free access to the single market – but warned that the UK may have to pay billions into the EU’s coffers in return.
In an essay for the think tank Open Europe, Mr Tyrie said Britain needed a ‘reality check’ on EU budget contributions, which Brexit campaigners said would end.
He added: ‘If it retains comprehensive access to the single market, the UK would come under considerable pressure – to which both Norway and Switzerland have succumbed – to pay for the benefits of EU enlargement, and the economic development of poorer member states.’
Mr Tyrie also suggested ministers should wait until the end of next year to trigger formal exit negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty in order to avoid clashing with elections in France and Germany.
He said ministers should not invoke Article 50 without the backing of parliament – something ministers have said is unnecessary.
Mr Tyrie said the Govern- ment needed its negotiating partners to be in a position to agree reasonable terms.
‘This certainly requires waiting until next year, as the Prime Minister has already clarified,’ he said. ‘ It could possibly require waiting until after the French elections in May, and perhaps even the German elections in September.
‘Far from eliminating uncertainty, triggering Article 50 before this point might guarantee two years of it.’
Government sources have indicated that Article 50 is likely to be triggered early next year, with the UK likely to leave the EU early in 2019.
Remain campaigners will today launch a new campaign group, Open Britain, to lobby for the UK to maintain the closest possible links to the EU. Sources last night insisted that the group was not pushing to overturn the referendum result, but wanted the UK to keep free movement and remain a member of the EU’s single market.