Liam Fox says post-Brexit customs union would be ‘sellout’

Britain's international trade secretary Liam Fox has defended his government's post-Brexit trade policy, describing any customs union with the EU as "a complete sellout". Dr Fox said that having to adhere to EU rules would make Britain less attractive to other potential trading partners.

“The inevitable price of trying to negotiate with one arm tied behind our back is that we would become less attractive to potential trade partners and forfeit many of the opportunities that would otherwise be available,” he said.

Dr Fox was speaking after his former top civil servant compared the government's trade policy to "rejecting a three-course meal now in favour of the promise of a packet of crisps later". Martin Donnelly, who was permanent secretary at the department for international trade until last year, said the European single market was key to Britain's prosperity.

“We risk losing that level playing field or being shut out entirely and we have got to look at how this really works in practice,” he told the BBC.

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“The challenge if we choose not to stay in the single market is, can we negotiate equal access in all those areas of services without agreeing to obey the same rules as everybody else? I’m afraid I think that’s not a negotiation, that is something for a fairy godmother. It’s not going to happen.”

Dr Fox responded by mischaracterising Sir Martin, who spent four years in Brussels almost 30 years ago working for British commissioner Leon Brittan, as a lifelong Eurocrat.

Liberal partnership

"First of all, it is unsurprising that those who have spent a lifetime working within the European Union would see moving away from the European Union as being threatening. The particular choice that I heard Sir Martin Donnelly outline was a choice between the European Union and trade opportunities elsewhere," he said. "I don't believe that is the choice we face. We are already trying to seek a full and liberal partnership with the European Union, we are already having discussions about expanding our trade agreements beyond the EU and we are also talking about rolling over the EU agreements into EU law so that we can get no disruption in terms of market access at the point of access."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Monday called for Britain to seek a new customs union with the EU after Brexit to help protect jobs and supply chains which depend on tariff-free access to the EU. He said Britain could have a say in future deals negotiated by the EU but Dr Fox claimed that London would have to cede considerable control of its trade policy to the EU if there was a customs union.

“As rule takers, without any say in how the rules were made, we would be in a worse position than we are today,” he said. “It would be a complete sellout of Britain’s national interests.”