Brexit trade deals ‘unlikely’

The UK will not be able to renegotiate all trade treaties involving the EU by the end of March, government officials have admitted for the first time.

Trade secretary Liam Fox had pledged to sign 40 free trade agreements by 29 March to replace the existing 40 deals between the EU and third countries. However, department officials admitted this week during a meeting with businesses that this is ‘unlikely’, according to a report by the Press Association, which has seen the minutes of the meeting.

So far, the UK has signed deals with Switzerland, the Faroe Islands and Chile, which will continue trade on the same terms as before Brexit.

Hogan Lovells partner Aline Doussin, who heads the firm’s UK trade team, said: ‘The news is not totally unexpected.

‘So far only a limited number of trade continuity agreements have been inked which while welcome do not account for a great quantity of the UK’s trade. That said the deal recently agreed with Switzerland is very much welcome, if somewhat surprising, in terms of how positive it is for mutual recognition of industrial products for instance, or cooperation in customs and judicial matters and how straight forward the deal was.

‘However, we continue to find ourselves in a waiting and seeing mode with much more significant countries such as Japan, Canada and South Korea who have their own wide-ranging trade deals with the EU.’

Fox has said the UK has agreed an ‘in principle’ free trade agreement with Israel. The UK has also signed mutual recognition agreements with Australia and New Zealand. These are not free trade deals but agreements that both sides will replicate aspects of their current arrangements with the EU.