BRITAIN must widen its horizons beyond Brexit, Liam Fox, has insisted as he launched a new UK Government strategy to expand the country’s exports from 30 to 35 per cent of GDP.

Speaking to captains of industry in London, the International Trade Secretary seemed almost exasperated about how quitting the EU was dominating the political narrative at home as the UK’s competitors adopted a world view and took up the challenge of expanding their exports abroad.

Dr Fox, who travels to China today, told a business audience at the Institute of Directors: “It’s really important that we don’t have such a narrow bandwidth that we only think about Brexit.

“It’s really interesting when I go to China and other parts of the world and talk about the global economy, tariffs, the US and China, the WTO and in the UK we talk about Brexit, Brexit and Brexit. It’s an important issue but it’s not the only issue in terms of global trade.

“What we are trying to do today is to…widen our horizons, to lengthen our timeframes.

"Our competitors are not thinking about next year or the year after. They are thinking in five, 10, 15-year timescales about how they can improve their global position."

The Secretary of State said Britain had the potential to be a "21st century exporting superpower" and that the new strategy was being led by business rather than government.

His ministerial colleague, Baroness Fairhead, told the IoD that 20 years ago Germany had an export industry which accounted for 30 per cent of GDP, similar to Britain’s today; but it had grown its exports so they now accounted for almost 50 per cent of GDP.

Dr Fox stressed how Europe, which accounts for some 43 per cent of the UK’s export market - 10 years ago it was more than 50 per cent - remained very important but he sought to set this in a global context.

He explained how China within the next decade or so was expected to have some 220 cities with a population of more than one million people; today, the whole of Europe has just 35.

He also noted how it was predicted that by 2060 there would be more than one billion middle class Africans.

"The shifts in global economic and demographic power - and the rise of collective wealth of developing countries that it is bringing - will shape future opportunities of free trade in the years to come.

"Making the most of these changes - providing the jobs and prosperity the UK needs - means navigating this shift successfully," explained the Secretary of State.

Dr Fox, who earlier this month suggested the odds of a no-deal Brexit was 60/40, insisted quitting the EU did not mean Britain would "pull up the drawbridge," rather, it would be able to "embrace the opportunities that the changing pattern of global trade presents".

The Scot added: "We must raise our ambitions, widen our horizons and expand our timescales.

"Europe is, and will, continue to be an important market for our goods and services, but there is a world beyond Europe and a time beyond Brexit."

But the Government’s opponents were unconvinced by the launch of its new export strategy.

Sir Vince Cable claimed the 35 per cent trade target was meaningless, having been “pulled out of thin air”.

Such targets, the Liberal Democrat leader argued, had been created, missed and forgotten about several times before.

“The best way to become an exporting superpower is to protect our place in the single market and customs union by exiting from Brexit whilst simultaneously supporting exports to rapidly growing markets across the world from within the EU," he added.

Labour’s Peter Kyle, on behalf of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “Far from being a future superpower, Liam Fox and his fellow Brextremists are shrinking our global ambition and the risk of leaving the single market and customs union will be far more damaging than any fantasy gains dreamt up by ministers.

“The chaos and uncertainty of Liam Fox’s bad deal or no deal Brexit is why we need a People’s Vote on the Brexit deal to let the people take back control,” he added.