Countries including South Korea and Chile preparing to demand concessions from Britain in return for rolling over EU trade deals
Chile and South Korea have already objected to their agreements automatically being applied after March 2019
COUNTRIES are to bombard Britain with demands for concessions in return for rolling over their EU trade deals.
South Korea and Chile have already objected to their agreements being automatically applied to the UK after March 2019, whilst Australia is readying protests.
The setback will come as a shock to the Government, which believed the continuation of over 70 FTAs would be easy to achieve.
Last month trade minister Greg Hands announced: “None of the 70 plus countries engaged has objected to transitioning their existing EU agreement to a UK one.”
But EU diplomats have been warned by their deputy negotiator Sabine Weyand that the three countries have already queried such an arrangement and others could follow suit.
Lawyers have confirmed that Britain will fall out of all the EU’s international agreements when it formally exits the bloc.
A transition pact on customs is being stitched up that would mean the UK has to continue accepting the terms of those deals for at least two years.
However, it will not be automatically entitled to the benefits meaning rollover agreements have to be sealed with all the EU’s partners.
The fudge means Britain could end up having to import goods from third countries tariff free, but being subjected to WTO terms when exporting to those same states.
Last week Michel Barnier warned: “We cannot ensure in Article 50 that the UK keeps the benefits for these international agreements.
“Our partners around the world may have their own views on this for instance the 70 countries covered by trade deals.”