By Suella Fernandes
Conservative MP for Fareham and chair of the European Research Group
AS PRIME MINISTER Theresa May led talks at the G20 Summit last weekend, I was encouraged to hear her state that Britain could be a global leader in free and fair trade as we leave the European Union.
Britain may now embrace the chance to create an identity as a vibrant trading nation, an outward-looking people and a country that has every reason to be confident in its future.
If we are to realise this aspiration, we cannot remain signed up to the internal market or customs union and I was delighted to support this unequivocal stance set out in the Queen’s Speech, voted through the House of Commons.
With Labour now officially supporting exit from the customs union and the single market, we have a great opportunity ahead of us.
As the new chair of the European Research Group, I am passionate about making the uplifting case for Brexit: that of opportunity, freedom and prosperity, in which many of my colleagues in the Conservative parliamentary party believe. The problems with the customs union and internal market have been rehearsed often: locked into a market with which we have a growing trade deficit and prevented from making more of global markets with which we have a growing trade surplus; protectionism which raises consumer prices and manufacturing costs; lack of autonomy on trade policy perpetuating a democratic deficit characterised by inappropriate regulations and diktat.
Brexit is a chance to reignite that ability to reengage with India, China and Commonwealth countries. For example, upon leaving the EU, Britain will be able to increase its exports to India by more than £2 billion per year by cutting EU red tape. The EU’s failure to agree a trade deal with India – held up for a decade by EU regulations on intellectual property and data protection – has hamstrung efforts to boost international growth. After Britain leaves the EU, a deal can go ahead because we will not be constrained by such rules.
I’m also pleased that the UK government has set up informal working groups with potential trade partners around the world so that we are ready to go on day one.
We have a real chance to activate a new era of global growth through free trade. By negotiating a new broad free trade agreement with the EU; leading the way with a “prosperity zone”, as reflected by the Legatum Institute’s Special Trade Commission, with countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore that believe in open trade, competition on merit and property rights protection; and building new economic partnerships with Commonwealth, African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to open up channels for agricultural products, the UK can be a beacon of free trade and fair trade.
Delay and prevarication will hinder progress but a time-limited implementation period is entirely sensible as we rise up to our new free trade agreements with our partners.
As our prime minister herself has made clear, this does not mean an unlimited transitional phase. We are going to leave the European Union. That is what people wanted and that is what we will deliver. We can use our post-Brexit trade freedoms to help transform some of the poorest countries in the world. We should end the harmful EU tariffs on higher value processed products which lock out poor countries from competing on a level playing field and stunt their development.
By liberating poorer countries from these punitive taxes, not only would choice for UK consumers explode as new products from around the world find their way to our shelves but prices would fall through lower import duties and competition.
Free markets are the strongest force for human economic progress, social justice and empowerment.
Emancipating the world’s poor, while also unleashing our own economic potency could raise Gross World Product by 1.5 per cent per year, meaning a global economy 50 per cent bigger in 15 years. That could spell the end of budget deficits, lift billions out of poverty through exponential job creation and propel property to a level not seen before.
So now is the time for those who campaigned to leave the EU and those who see the opportunity ahead even if they didn’t campaign for it, to unite in painting that bold and bright vision of the future of our country and of the world.
For those that can’t see this or won’t, the politics of yesterday may be good enough, but not for me.
Comment: A Brexit for the brave