Australia Brexit ultimatum: Leave EU customs union or LOSE out on lucrative trade deal
AUSTRALIA’S High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has warned Britain could lose out on trade with Canberra if the UK remains in the EU customs union after leaving the bloc and follows Jeremy Corbyn’s soft-Brexit plot.
Australia's High Commissioner issues UK customs union WARNING
Australia's High Commissioner Alexander Downer claimed Britain’s trade with Australia could boom post-Brexit but the future trade could be destroyed if the UK stayed in a customs union.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn altered the party’s stance and said they would fight to keep the UK in a customs union post-Brexit.
Theresa May has insisted the UK will be leaving the EU customs union to ensure Britain can to strike trade deals with countries across the globe after leaving the constraints of Brussels.
Speaking on BBC News’ Beyond 100 Days, Mr Downer said Britain’s trade with Australia could rapidly increase if it left the customs union and single market.
He said: “British trade has been diverted away from countries like Australia so I suspect on leaving the European Union Britain’s trade patterns would change a little.
“I’m not going to predict at all how much, I’m afraid I believe in the market.
“I’m just saying it was once seven percent and it’s now about two percent and obviously there is potential to grow that very substantially.”
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Obviously there is potential to grow that trade very substantially
Mr Downer warned about the consequences of staying in ‘a customs union’, a policy adopted by the Labour Party.
He said: “I’m not sure what people mean by 'a customs union' existing from 'the customs union', It think that is just a political difference without it being a difference of substance.
“If the UK was in the customs union or remained in the customs union it obviously would not be able to negotiate trade agreements with other countries so all of our focus would be on negotiations with the European Union.
“We would put our effort just into Brussels we wouldn’t need to bother with
Mr Downer added that if the UK was inside the customs union “it will have no say at all over the agreements that are negotiated on its behalf by the European Union”.
“That’s not a matter for us that is just what will happen,” he said.
The Prime Minister has reiterated the UK will be leaving the customs union in order to have an independent trade policy after Brexit.
Speaking during her landmark Mansion House speech on Friday, the Prime Minister reiterated the UK would be leaving the customs union.
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She said: “The UK has been clear it is leaving the Customs Union.
“The EU has also formed a customs union with some other countries. But those arrangements, if applied to the UK, would mean the EU setting the UK’s external tariffs, being able to let other countries sell more into the UK without making it any easier for us to sell more to them, or the UK signing up to the Common Commercial Policy.
“That would not be compatible with a meaningful independent trade policy. It would mean we had less control than we do now over our trade in the world. Neither Leave nor Remain voters would want that.”
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