Brexit: Liam Fox yet to seal no-deal trade agreements
2019-01-18 18:50:40
The UK has yet to finalise agreements to replace existing free trade deals the EU has with 40 big economies if there is a no-deal Brexit.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said he "hoped" they would but it depended on whether other countries were "willing to put the work in".
He said more deals were coming, after signing one with Australia.
Concerns have been raised that the UK will leave the EU without a deal that would protect current arrangements.
The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March, under the Article 50 process and the UK's EU Withdrawal Act, with or without a deal - unless the UK chooses to revoke Article 50 and continues as a member of the EU.
MPs defeated the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU by a huge margin earlier this week, which provided for a "transition period" of 21 months, under which much of the UK's relationship with the EU would remain the same.
In 2017, Mr Fox said that the UK could "replicate the 40 free trade agreements before we leave the EU", so that there would be no disruption to trade.
But with just over two months to go until Brexit, not one has been signed, said the BBC's business correspondent Jonty Bloom.
The Department for International Trade says some agreements are at an advanced stage but none of the 40 free trade deals that the EU has with other countries have so far been rolled over so that they will cover the UK after Brexit.
The closest the UK has come to rolling over a free trade deal is an initial agreement with Switzerland to replicate the existing EU-Switzerland arrangements "as far as possible". But that deal has not been formally signed yet.
Asked about a report in the Financial Times that Britain would not be close to finalising most of the 40 free trade deals the EU currently has with other countries, Mr Fox told the BBC: "I hope they will be but there are not just dependent on the UK. Our side is ready.
"It's largely dependent on other whether countries believe that there will be no deal and are willing to put the work in to the preparations."
AFP.