IT may take the UK several years longer than expected after Brexit to strike free trade deals with countries outside Europe, the international trade minister had admitted.
Greg Hands said it was possible the UK might not be able to could cut deals quickly with other countries, as it would still be bound by “transitional arrangements” with the EU.
Although Brexit is due to take place by 29 March 2019, the UK is expected to go through an initial transitional phase on trade and customs to avoid a sudden “cliff-edge” for business.
Brexit Secretary David Davis has suggested this could last three years, until 2022, but Chancellor Philip Hammond has said it may take even longer.
EU members negotiate trade terms with other countries collectively, and advocates of Brexit say it would allow the UK to make its own arrangements with the US and others.
However Mr Hands said it “remains to be seen” how soon that might happen, despite it being a key plank of Theresa May’s Brexit strategy.
He told the BBC Sunday Politics the UK’s position remained exit from the EU single market and customs union, followed by a comprehensive free trade deal.
But asked if Britain could still strike free trade deals in a transitional period, he replied: "That remains to be seen, we don't yet know. We have only just started the negotiation."
Mr Hands also said he could not discuss at what point a transition period might begin or end, or even if there would be such an arrangement.
He said: “What we are clear about is there should be no cliff edge for businesses in the UK and the European Union and to make sure that trade continues as frictionless as possible."
Downing Street downplayed a report in the Sunday Telegraph that the Prime Minister would walk out the negotiations in a staged show of defence over the “divorce bill” for Brexit.
The paper said a former senior figure in Number 10 had briefed industry and City bosses about the pantomime in order to limit the backlash from financial markets.
“This suggestion has no part in our plans,” a Number 10 source said.
Outgoing LibDem leader Tim Farron said Mrs May’s “threat to throw her toys out the pram was a “desperate attempt” by the Prime Minister to project strength she didn’t have.
He said: “It is no way to conduct negotiations that are vital for the future of every family in this country."
The SNP yesterday welcomed the UK Government triggering a two-year withdrawal from a pre-EU arrangement allowing five European countries to fish in British waters.
The 1964 London Fisheries Convention lets vessels from France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands fish six to 12 nautical miles off the UK coastline.
Withdrawal means UK vessels lose reciprocal fishing rights with the same countries.
Tory Environment Secretary Michael Gove said it was an “important moment” allowing the UK to “take back control” and negotiate fresh arrangements over access.
He said: “For the first time in more than 50 years we will be able to decide who can access our waters. This is an historic - one which leads to a more competitive, profitable and sustainable industry for the whole of the UK."
SNP Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “We have been pressing for some time now.
"Our priority is to protect our fishing industry and allowing unrestricted access to our waters to remain through this convention clearly would not be doing that.
"We cannot rely on the UK Government to do that, having regularly put the interests of fishing communities elsewhere in the UK ahead of those in Scotland.
"It is vital therefore that all powers over policy be repatriated to Scotland and current EU funding for fisheries be matched and transferred to Scotland in full."
Shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said the 1964 deal had been superseded by the Common Fisheries Policy and the “provocative" step could risk talks on a free trade deal.
After Labour’s ambiguous stance on Europe through the election campaign, shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth yesterday said there was “no appetite” for a second EU referendum.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “I have mooted that in the past, but I don't think that is a position that has broad consensus any more… clearly there's no appetite for that."
Labour MP Stella Creasy told the programme “all options” should be on the table in the Brexit talks, adding: “If you walk in the room and you throw away something like single market membership - 650,000 jobs in London alone are part of that - it's irresponsible."
LibDem shadow chancellor Sir Vince Cable last night said Brexit was “eating into growth and wages before we event leave the EU” after the Centre for Economics & Business Research revised down the UK growth forecast this year from 1.7 per cent in April to just 1.3 per cent.
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