Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Courts Excerpts

Thursday 14th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Robert Courts (Witney) (Con)]

6. What assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK remaining in the customs union on its ability to negotiate new free trade agreements throughout the world.

[Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) (Con)]

8. What assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK remaining in the customs union on its ability to negotiate new free trade agreements throughout the world.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Suella Braverman)]

We have been clear that the UK will be leaving the EU’s customs union and the single market in March 2019. Only by leaving the customs union and establishing a new and ambitious customs arrangement with the EU will we be able to forge new trade relationships with our partners around the world. If the UK were to remain in the customs union, we would be unable to implement our own trade deals or to set our own tariffs. That would not give us control over our trade policy and it would not be respecting the referendum result.

[Robert Courts]

Any policy whereby Britain leaves the European Union but remains in the customs union would mean surrendering our trade policy to a third party, and would mean that we were required to open our markets to other countries without guaranteed reciprocal access to theirs. Does my hon. Friend agree that no independent, self-respecting nation could tolerate such a position?

[Suella Braverman]

I agree with my hon. Friend. A customs union creates an asymmetrical relationship. Turkey is an example of a country in a customs union with the EU but not in the customs union with the EU. The effect of that is that if the EU signs a free trade agreement with a third country—let us say, the US or Canada—goods from the US or Canada can enter Turkey tariff-free, but Turkish goods still face a tariff barrier in Canada or America, which puts Turkish businesses and exporters at a significant disadvantage. With free trade as the big prize for Brexit, Labour’s support for a customs union makes no sense at all.