‘A LOT of things to sign’ David Davis boasts of post-Brexit trade deals in April 2019
BREXIT SECRETARY David Davis today expressed his confidence Britain would sign “a lot” of free trade deals with countries around the world on the day it finally quits the EU.
David Davis boasts of post-Brexit trade deals
The Cabinet minister told MPs he had a “very strong suspicion” non-EU countries would be queuing up to sign trade agreements with the UK on Brexit day, scheduled for April 2019.
Earlier, Theresa May had set out her Government’s 12-point Brexit plan ahead of Article 50 divorce talks, due to be triggered in weeks, with the Prime Minister promising to make Britain a “great, global trading nation” outside of the EU.
This will mean partly leaving the EU’s Customs Union, which restricts Britain’s ability to sign free trade deals with non-EU countries.
Answering questions on Mrs May’s Brexit blueprint in the House of Commons this afternoon, Mr Davis insisted “of course” the Government would continue to work towards new trade agreements alongside Article 50 talks over the next two years.
He told MPs: “We can't actually sign until the day we leave. But I've got a very strong suspicion there will be a lot of things to sign that very next day.”
US President-elect Donald Trump has already insisted Britain could “absolutely” sign a trade deal with the US “very quickly” after Brexit.
Last week, New Zealand’s prime minister Bill English also told Mrs May his country wants a free trade deal with the UK “as soon as possible” after Brexit.
I've got a very strong suspicion there will be a lot of things to sign that very next day.
Labour’s shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer used the House of Commons session to praise the Prime Minister for ruling “hard Brexit out at this stage” after Mrs May expressed her desire to sign a free trade agreement with the remaining 27 EU member states - despite confirming the UK will be leaving the Single Market.
But Sir Keir warned that talk of Britain becoming a tax haven in order to remain competitive if it gets a punitive EU deal "would be an act of huge self-harm for the UK".
He said: “If the Prime Minister achieves all that she has set out to achieve, she will fall short of hard Brexit that many in business and trade unions had feared, the Brexit of no deal, a bare trade agreement out of any customs union and at arm's-length with our EU relations.
"And it is good that she has ruled that hard Brexit out at this stage.
"But as the Prime Minister knows, setting out ambitions is the easy bit - delivery is more difficult, much more difficult."