Brexit could put trade deals with 70 countries at risk, MPs warn

Bloomberg
Robin de Peyer7 March 2018
WEST END FINAL

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Brexit could jeopardise trade deals with about 70 countries, MPs have warned.

The Government was advised to obtain “legally watertight” guarantees that the deals will stand after Britain leaves the EU.

Ministers want agreements struck while the UK was a member of the European Union to continue after it has left the bloc in March 2019.

They say no other countries have objected to the approach – but MPS warned it could be naive to assume that means roll-over of the deals is "actually certain to occur".

There is a "disturbing lack of precision and clarity about the legal mechanism whereby the Government envisages EU trade agreements with some 70 countries being rolled over", the MPs on the Commons International Trade Committee said.

The Government must show it has a "legally watertight and practically viable strategy" for avoiding a "cliff edge" in trade.

The MPs warned: "The Government would risk appearing naive if it assumed that assent-in-principle to roll over an agreement constitutes a guarantee that roll-over is actually certain to occur at the point of Brexit.

"It must be realistic about the steps that are necessary to get new agreements in place - and have contingency plans for the eventuality that the third countries concerned change their minds."

The committee also called for clarity about exactly how many deals would be affected by Brexit.

While the EU has about 40 trade deals with 70 countries, it is also party to scores of other agreements and the total number of trade-related agreements could be 759 with 168 countries.

Committee chairman Angus Brendan MacNeil said: "The Government is making much of the trade agreements it plans to make after Brexit, but first it needs to give us confidence that the existing agreements, on which businesses, consumers and trading partners alike rely, can be rolled over so the UK can benefit in its own right.

"Unless an agreement is reached with our trading partners in the coming months, a significant economic price will have to be paid.”

International Trade Minister Greg Hands said: "The report recognises the priority that the Government has given to ensuring continuity of our trade arrangements as we leave the EU, including in providing certainty to businesses, consumers and investors.

"We have always been clear that this work would take into account the terms and timing of any implementation period currently being negotiated with the EU.

"This is a technical exercise, not an opportunity to renegotiate terms.

"We have already held discussions with more than 70 countries, unlike the committee, and none have displayed any interest in disrupting trade flows, or in erecting barriers to trade that do not currently exist."

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