Liam Fox has hailed the opportunity for Britain to become a fully independent member of the World Trade Organisation after leaving the EU, indicating that he appears to favour a “hard Brexit”.
In a major speech, the trade secretary said Brexit was a “golden opportunity” for the UK to trade with the rest of the world, particularly developing markets.
His intervention comes amid a debate about whether the UK should push for a “soft Brexit”, in which it would retain as much access as possible to the single market but have to continue to allow the free movement of people, or go for a “harder” option, leaving the single market and trading under WTO rules and tariffs, but able to curb free movement.
A Bloomberg analysis of the responses of European countries suggests that the likelihood of Britain facing a “hard Brexit” is increasing. Almost all the countries stressed the importance of the UK retaining free movement if it wanted to continue to enjoy the benefits of the single market.
Theresa May has insisted a bespoke agreement for Britain is possible, claiming other EU leaders “will give us a deal”.
However, Fox appeared to be leaning more towards the option of trading on WTO terms, rather than having to comply with EU trade rules.
Speaking in Manchester, Fox said the UK had played a large role in ensuring the single market remained open to trade and would continue to encourage this liberalisation.
But, he added: “Through the WTO the UK has helped pushed through the trade facilitation agreement which, once implemented, could add over £70bn to the global economy annually, of which £1bn will come to the UK.
“As a newly independent WTO member outside the EU, we will continue to fight for trade liberalisation as well as potentially helping developing markets trade their way out of poverty by giving them preferential access to our markets.”
While he only mentioned the single market once, the WTO was raised eight times.
“The UK is a full and founding member of the WTO, though we have chosen to be represented by the EU in recent years,” he said. “As we establish our independent position post-Brexit, we will carry the standard of free and open trade as a badge of honour.”
His position was criticised as “delusional” by Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat spokesman on the EU.
“Unbelievably, he claims to be ‘taking an axe to red tape across borders’,” Clegg said. “The truth is that leaving the EU’s customs union and single market will bring a deluge of new Brexit red tape down on the heads of British businesses who export to the continent.
“Fox needs to come clean about the true impact this will have on our exporters.”
Senior Tories have urged the prime minister to set out a clearer plan for Brexit. Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, and Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, pressed May to come up with more than her slogan “Brexit means Brexit”, before her first party conference speech as leader in Birmingham next week.
Morgan, who is emerging as a leading Tory moderniser on the backbenches, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that May should provide more details about when she would trigger article 50 to start the process of leaving the EU, either at the party conference or within the next couple of months.
“There has been a lack of a plan coming from the government and, yes there is a danger where the government will find itself in a position where other people are setting the terms,” Morgan said.
Meanwhile, the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, said there would be an interesting debate about the single market and immigration across Europe, but “it will be impossible to give to British people more rights than other people outside the EU”.
