As Brexit day looms, the ‘Ready to Trade’ campaign kicks off
THE Government is to mark the first day of Britain’s departure from the European Union with the launch of an international advertising campaign telling foreign businesses that the UK is “ready to trade” with them.
The new “Ready to Trade” campaign will be launched with posters and billboards in 17 cities across 13 countries outside the EU on Feb 1, the day after Brexit day.
Downing Street says the campaign “seeks to deepen our relationships with future global partners” and features striking images of the union flag, including red, white and blue container units on a freight ship.
An advertising campaign will also be launched in the UK tomorrow, with the message ‘This Friday the UK leaves the EU’, urging businesses here to check for any changes they need to make ahead of Jan 2021, when the Brexit transition period comes to an end.
Brexit day itself will be marked with a number of initiatives, including a commemorative 50p coin. Three million will go into circulation from Jan 31, with a further 7million entering circulation later this year.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will be one of the first to receive the new Brexit coin, which features the words “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations”.
Mr Johnson said: “Next Friday marks an important moment in the history of our United Kingdom. No matter how you voted in 2016, it is the time to look ahead with confidence to the global, trailblazing country we will become over the next decade and heal past divisions. That is what I will be doing on 31 January and I urge everyone across the UK to do the same.”
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Steve Baker, the chairman of the European Research Group of backbench Tory Eurosceptics, warns the Government against giving away too much in the trade negotiations in the EU. He states: “If sense prevails, our future relationship with the EU will be negotiated successfully. But there’s the problem. Sense hasn’t prevailed in the past and looks at risk today.”
The Cabinet will begin Brexit day in the North of England to discuss “the PM’s levelling up agenda and how best to spread prosperity and opportunity across all corners of the UK”. Later that evening Mr Johnson will deliver a public address at 10pm, with a commemorative light display in Downing Street an hour later, marking the moment the UK officially leaves the EU.
Union flags will line Parliament Square and The Mall on Jan 31, and the public will see government buildings in Whitehall lit up in red, white and blue colours. No10 said the Prime Minister will host a “People’s PMQs” session on Wednesday, with children invited to Downing Street the next day to ask questions about the future.
The Brexit day initiatives come after it emerged that Mr Johnson is expected to formally open trade talks with the
US before he begins discussions with the European Union.
US diplomats believe the Prime Minister is poised to seek Cabinet authorisation to open trade talks with America on a visit to Washington next month. British civil servants have drawn up advice for ministers on the “pros and cons” of starting trade talks directly with America before beginning them with the EU.
A UK government source who has seen the advice said the argument for going to the US first is to show “we mean business and we’re not messing around”. It would also aim to avoid becoming “trapped” by Brussels negotiators and “negate some of the concerns of the EU trying to play the ball in the way they want”, the source said.
“The political signal would be, ‘We’ve got the capacity to do this at the same time, don’t hold this up’.”