Post-Brexit trade deals won’t come into force until 2022 under ‘compromise’ plan to ease transition
New trade deals won't be implemented until 2022 to make the transition as smooth as possible for business
BRITAIN will start making new trade deals as soon as we leave the EU, ministers are proposing.
But they will not be implemented until as late as 2022 to make the transition as smooth as possible for business.
Other plans include a temporary customs union between Britain and the EU after Brexit in 2019.
Officials last night called it a compromise between warring Cabinet ministers.
Under the plan, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will be free to start drawing up deals with countries, such as the US, immediately after Brexit on March 30, 2019.
But to keep EU trade free of barriers during the transition period, a key demand from Chancellor Philip Hammond, they will not be able to come into force while the temporary union lasts.
While the plan pleased business leaders last night, the wait of up to five more years to break into new global markets risks angering hardliners.
Leading Brexit campaigner and senior Tory MP Bernard Jenkin told The Sun: “Anything that smoothes our exit and gives business reassurance is good but it depends how long this transition period is.
“We must not look hobbled in our trading relationships with non-EU countries.”
But CBI deputy director-general Josh Hardie said: “All efforts should be made to deliver a single-step transition, so that businesses don’t have to adapt twice.”
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The customs plan is the first of a series of detailed new papers on the Government’s EU exit thinking.
Another will be issued tomorrow on how to solve the Irish border conundrum.