Non-EU countries queue up to strike trade deals with Britain despite Brexit vote

COUNTRIES around the world are clamouring to start trade talks with Britain following our decision to leave the European Union.

American politicians realise the importance of an agreement and Business Secretary Sajid Javid says we are set for immediate discussions with Australia and South Korea.

And sources say both Canada and India have separately approached the Foreign Office for talks following the Brexit vote.

New Zealand Premier John Key has said he may rip up travel plans to fly to Britain in the coming months to discuss a trade deal.

And New Zealand’s trade minister Todd McClay said Britain was a “long- standing friend” and he wanted “to be useful in any way we can be” so is offering its negotiators to help hammer out deals.

US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan says the USA needs to start negotiating a new free trade deal with Britain to ‘show solidarity’ and ensure a ‘smooth relationship’ post-Brexit.

Mail Online reports the former Republican vice-presidential candidate says the UK is America’s “indispensable ally” and needed to be helped after it decided to leave the European Union.

His comments on the issue are very different to outgoing President Barack Obama, who warned before the referendum that if the UK voted for Brexit then it would be at the “back of the queue” for trade deals with the US.

Mr Ryan said: ‘We need to emphasise that they are our indispensable ally.

“We have a special relationship, and I think that does mean we should have a trade agreement with Great Britain.”

Barack Obama’s former chief fundraiser Matthew Barzun told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that the president was right to warn Britain it would end up at “the back of queue” because of Brexit.

He said it was naïve to think the UK could somehow “jump further ahead” of its trade rivals.

Mr Barzun said: “The tone in which it was said, there was nothing punitive about it.

“The point was, you are at the front of the queue right now - he was saying back in April - because we are doing this big trade deal with the European Union, of which you are a member.

“But if you step out of the front of the queue, by definition you are no longer at the front and some notion that you can jump further ahead; you just want to say that is not the trend for the types of big deals we are doing these days.”

David Cameron has met business advisers to tell them the corporate world has to start setting out its agenda.

Mr Javid has a lot of deals to do around the world now Britain has voted for Brexit.

Trade minister Lord Mark Price, who used to be the boss of Waitrose, is set to visit China, Hong Kong and Brazil.