Liam
Fox
REUTERS/Hannah
McKay
Liam Fox says Britain cannot be in a customs union with
the EU after Brexit.
Trade Secretary Fox warns Theresa May against a customs
union deal amid reports that the government is considering
staying wedded to EU customs rules after Brexit.
The prime minister has kept the door open for a new
customs deal with the EU.
LONDON — Liam Fox has warned Prime Minister Theresa May that
Britain should not stay in a customs union with the European
Union after Brexit amid reports that officials are strongly
considering it as an option.
In another sign of how Brexit threatens Cabinet unity, Fox, the
International Trade Secretary, said Britain could only "take
control" of trade and customs by striking new trade deals which
it can't sign under EU rules.
Prime Minister May has said that Britain leave the customs union
in 2019 but continue under its rules during a transition period
lasting around two-years.
The customs union provides tariff and barrier free trade between
EU member states and applies a common external tariff to trade
with non-members (i.e rest of the world.)
Brexiteers like Fox oppose the customs union as members are under
EU rules unable to sign their own trade agreements with countries
around the world.
The government is currently looking into whether Britain can
enter a customs union with the EU after transition in order to
minimise disruption to trade and go some way to solving the
tricky issue of the Irish border, the FT reports.
However, Fox told Bloomberg news staying in a customs union would
not be "compatible" with the Britain's post-Brexit independent
trading policy, as set out in many of May's speeches.
"It’s very difficult to see how being in a customs union is
compatible with having an independent trade policy because we
would therefore be dependent on what the EU negotiated in terms
of its trading policies and we’d be following behind that," Fox
said.
"We have to be outside of that to take advantage of those growing
markets. One of the reasons we are leaving the EU is to take
control and that’s not possible with a common external tariff."
May is coming under increasing pressure from competing wings of
party to satisfy their demands on Brexit.
Brexiteers like Fox advocate a clean break from EU insitutions
while Cabinet members like Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home
Secretary Amber Rudd want to stay closely wedded to Brussels
after Britain's exit.
A Brexit impact assessment leaked to the BuzzFeed earlier
this week that found Britain will be financially worse off
outside the EU under any modelled scenario.
Hilary Benn, chair of the parliamentary Brexit committee,
told BI last month that the
government's decision to make leaving the customs union its
policy without first assessing the impact of doing so as
"extraordinary."
Source link
No comments:
Post a Comment