By Ben Kerrigan-
International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, has played down the importance of a free trade deal with The EU.
Fox told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that despite his desire to achieve a deal , it would not be the end of the world if an agreement could not be reached.
He said: “We don’t want to have no deal, it is much better that we have a deal than no deal.
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“We can of course survive with no deal and we have to go into a negotiation with those on the other side knowing that that’s what we think.
“Of course we want to come to a full and comprehensive deal with the European Union. Why? Because it is good for the people of Britain and it’s good for our economy, it’s good for the consumers and the workers of Europe and their economy.
“If you think about it the free trade agreement that we will have to come to with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history.
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“We are already beginning with zero tariffs and we are already beginning at the point of maximal regulatory equivalence as it is called, in other words our rules and our laws are exactly the same.
“The only reason that we wouldn’t come to a free and open agreement is because politics gets in the way of economics.”
POLITICS
Politics has been the main obstacle in the very building of talks to establish a deal. The hotly contested issue of a divorce bill is still a hurdle the British government are struggling to overcome. With EU chiefs demanding that Britain pay a divorce bill of over £600m before any talks on trade can develop, the path to a free trade deal looks anything but easy.
British ministers have laughed off the hefty bill being imposed by the EU, and appear to be united in their view that European chiefs are making an unreasonable and unjustifiable demand. Progress on talks about a trade deal will obviously have to first be achieved before it becomes clear how easy obtaining such a deal will be. Fox also said he had held talks with the World Trade Organisation(WTO) about Britain becoming an independent member
REFLECTION
Future reflection on the ease with which a free trade deal was achieved or not achieved will tell us more about the judgement of Liam Fox. An interesting opinion also made by Fox was his view that it was impossible for Britain to be part of the single market or the customs union after Brexit.“You cannot leave the European Union and be in the single market or the customs union, they are EU legal entities,” he said. “That’s the legal definition – if you are out of the European Union, you are not in the single market or the customs union.”
Fox makes a lot of sense in his explanation of the single market and its connection with the EU as legal entities. If he is right, then all the fuss about trying to join the single market becomes a waste of time, if the chances of success is doomed from the outset.
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