Ministers are rushing to try to ensure continuity of about 40 free trade deals held by EU

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Britain has signed a trade continuity agreement with Switzerland to avoid disruption for thousands of businesses post-Brexit, less than 50 days before the UK is due to leave the EU.

The Department for International Trade said the agreement would maintain UK-Swiss trade under the preferential terms currently available to both countries through an EU free trade deal.

It comes as ministers rush to ensure the continuity of about 40 free trade deals held by the EU covering more than 70 countries, which Britain currently has access to via EU membership but will lose after Brexit.

Ministers have conceded in private meetings with business leaders that they will not be able to replace all of the deals before the Brexit deadline on 29 March, meaning a large proportion of UK exports could shift to World Trade Organization rules. This would mean higher border tariffs and extra costs for companies in Britain and abroad.

Japan has sought to extract hefty concessions from Britain before Brexit, while talks with many nations have been delayed by the lack of clarity over Britain’s future trading relationship with the EU.

The trade between Britain and the countries and regions covered by the EU free trade agreements amounts to about 14% of all UK goods imports and exports each year, worth as much as £117bn in 2017.

Signing the Swiss trade continuity deal will enable ministers to declare that progress is being made, but deals with major trading partners including Canada, South Korea and Japan remain to be signed.

Britain has agreed mutual recognition trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, as well as trade continuity agreements with Switzerland, Chile, the Faroe Islands and the eastern and southern Africa trading bloc.

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, who signed the Swiss accord in Berne on Monday with a Swiss federal councillor, Guy Parmelin, said the deal was of “huge economic importance” to Britain and would benefit 15,000 UK exporters.

“Not only will this help to support jobs throughout the UK but it will also be a solid foundation for us to build an even stronger trading relationship with Switzerland as we leave the EU,” Fox said.

The deal simplifies trade and allows businesses in both countries to continue trading freely after Brexit without any additional tariffs, as is currently the case as part of EU membership.

A spokesperson for the Department for International Trade said: “Our priority is to avoid disruption to our global trading relationships as we leave the European Union and we are seeking continuity for existing free trade agreements.”</s>LONDON, Feb 11 — Britain and Switzerland will sign an agreement today to continue trading on preferential terms after Brexit, the British trade department said, protecting a trade relationship worth £32 billion (RM168.4 billion).

The formal signing of the deal, on which agreement had previously been announced, is one of only handful of concrete steps Britain has made towards ensuring that all the trade deals it currently benefits from as an EU member will continue after it leaves the bloc next month.

“Not only will this help to support jobs throughout the UK but it will also be a solid foundation for us to build an even stronger trading relationship with Switzerland as we leave the EU,” International Trade minister Liam Fox said in a statement.

The deal reflects Switzerland's “mind the gap” strategy of ensuring seamless trade ties with Britain, regardless of whether London is able to strike and approve a formal exit agreement with Brussels by March 29, the date it is scheduled to leave.

Britain has reached an impasse in its last-minute renegotiation of an exit deal that it agreed with the EU last year but that was overwhelmingly rejected by the British parliament in January.

The government said last month it expects Britain will have most of the agreements it needs to replicate existing trade deals between the EU and third countries ready by the end of March.

A similar continuity agreement has been announced with Israel, and “mutual recognition” deals have been agreed with Australia and New Zealand.

But the head of the Confederation of British Industry, Carolyn Fairbairn, said yesterday the “unfolding nightmare” of Britain's exit meant that major trade partners like Japan and South Korea were reluctant to sign deals until they knew the exact shape of future EU-Britain ties.

“It will be the decisions that businesses take about jobs and investment — and they will reduce them — so you have less potential to trade globally, that will mean less investment in the future and that will mean fewer jobs in the future,” she told Sky News. — Reuters</s>LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - The United Kingdom has reached an agreement with Switzerland that will allow it to continue trade without any additional tariffs after it leaves the European Union.

The deal means the nations can avoid having to trade under World Trade Organisation terms and eliminates duties on most goods traded between the UK and Switzerland, according to a statement Monday. The British automotive sector could avoid up to 8 million pounds (S$14 million) a year in tariff charges under the agreement, it said.

"Switzerland is one of the most valuable trading partners that we are seeking continuity for, accounting for more than 32 billion pounds worth of trade a year," Trade Secretary Liam Fox said.

"Not only will this help to support jobs throughout the UK but it will also be a solid foundation for us to build an even stronger trading relationship with Switzerland as we leave the EU."</s>The UK reached an agreement with Switzerland that will allow it to continue trade without any additional tariffs after it leaves the European Union (EU).

[LONDON] The UK reached an agreement with Switzerland that will allow it to continue trade without any additional tariffs after it leaves the European Union (EU).

The deal means the nations can avoid having to trade under World Trade Organization terms, and eliminates duties on most goods traded between the UK and Switzerland, according to a statement on Monday. The British car sector could avoid up to £8 million (S$14 million) a year in tariff charges under the agreement, it said.

"Switzerland is one of the most valuable trading partners that we are seeking continuity for, accounting for more than £32 billion worth of trade a year," Trade Secretary Liam Fox said.

"Not only will this help to support jobs throughout the UK but it will also be a solid foundation for us to build an even stronger trading relationship with Switzerland as we leave the EU."</s>International Trade Secretary Liam Fox put pen to paper on the deal in the Swiss capital Bern yesterday, saying the agreement provides a “solid foundation” for a post-Brexit trading relationship. The Brexiter is under pressure to keep up the success with just 46 days to go until Britain is due to walk away from Brussels. Trade with Switzerland, which participates in the EU’s single market but is not a full member of bloc, is worth about £32 billion a year to the British economy and the deal means the UK will continue to operate on Brussels’s terms until a free trade agreement is signed.

Dr Fox praised his Swiss counterparts for working with Britain to get the deal agreed before Brexit Day. He said: “Switzerland is one of the most valuable trading partners that we are seeking continuity for. "This is of huge economic importance to UK businesses so I'm delighted to be here in Bern ensuring continuity for 15,000 British exporters. "Not only will this help to support jobs throughout the UK but it will also be a solid foundation for us to build an even stronger trading relationship with Switzerland as we leave the EU."

The government is coming under increased scrutiny to make sure trade continues uninterrupted with time running out before the UK leaves the EU on March 29. Yesterday, the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) director-general Carolyn Fairbairn labelled the current situation is an “emergency”. Mrs Fairbairn highlighted the particular importance of Britain securing continuity of the EU’s recently signed deal with Japan. She told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “The prospect is the day after Brexit those deals will disappear.”

The government is working to roll over existing free trade deals and has so far signed mutual recognition agreements with Australia and Japan. Switzerland joins Chile, the Faroe Islands and parts of Southern and Eastern Africa which have been signed up to continuity agreements. However the future relationship with dozens of countries across the rest of the globe, including the world’s biggest economies the US, China and the EU is still far from clear. The CBI has also said about 40 trade deals across five continents are at risk of evaporating if the Department for Trade cannot secure a transition before Brexit. CBI president John Allen, who is also chairman of Tesco, echoed Mrs Fairbairn’s warning.</s>Trade relations between and the UK is not likely to be affected after Brexit, British to has said.

"Bilateral trade between Britain and stands at USD 25 billion. is an important trading partner and after Brexit, it is not to be affected", Simon told

Britain had been allowed to establish new trading arragements outside the EU following Brexit, he said.

The bilateral trade between Britain and India was growing at 17 per cent per annum, he said, adding "there is a nice momentum".

Though the balance of trade was in favour of Britain, the "new trade deal will have a positive effect".

The sectoral areas of bilateral trade between the two countries are technology, and for which green was available, he said.

Imports to India was USD 13 billion, while exports from India was USD 12 billion, he said.

"There is demand for green in India", Simon said.</s>The Government is preparing to sign global deals with the United Arab Emirates and a number of other Gulf nations, the UAE’s economy minister said. Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri said Britain had approached members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. Mansouri gave no further details. He was speaking on a panel at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, and will then be able to strike trade deals independently of the EU. The UK was "looking forward" to a free-trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Liam Fox, the UK state secretary for international trade, said during a visit to Dubai for the summit, according to state news agency WAM. The GCC comprises the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. In 2017, trade between the UAE and UK totalled £17.5bn, up 12.3 percent from 2016, according to official figures.

By 2020, the UK government wants that number to increase to about £25bn. Mr Fox said at the summit Britain and Switzerland will sign an agreement to continue trading on preferential terms after Brexit. The agreement will protect £32bn of trade done by Britain. Mr Fox said: "Not only will this help to support jobs throughout the UK but it will also be a solid foundation for us to build an even stronger trading relationship with Switzerland as we leave the EU.” The deal reflects Switzerland's "mind the gap" strategy of ensuring seamless trade ties with Britain, regardless of whether London is able to strike and approve a formal exit agreement with Brussels by March 29, the date it is scheduled to leave.

Britain has reached an impasse in its last-minute renegotiation of an exit deal that it agreed with the EU last year but that was overwhelmingly rejected by the British parliament in January. The government said last month it expects Britain will have most of the agreements it needs to replicate existing trade deals between the EU and third countries ready by the end of March. A similar continuity agreement has been announced with Israel, and 'mutual recognition' deals have been agreed with Australia and New Zealand. But the head of the Confederation of British Industry, Carolyn Fairbairn, said on Sunday the "unfolding nightmare" of Britain's exit meant that major trade partners like Japan and South Korea were reluctant to sign deals until they knew the exact shape of future EU-Britain ties. She told Sky News: "It will be the decisions that businesses take about jobs and investment - and they will reduce them - so you have less potential to trade globally, that will mean less investment in the future and that will mean fewer jobs in the future.”</s>1. Brexit means Brexit

Theresa May got elected in 2016 by saying “Brexit means Brexit” to everyone. Obviously, it is not technically a lie, which makes it sound strangely refreshing. Imagine it in a dictionary, though. “Brexit noun. Brexit.” I'm no lexicographer, but I don't think that's enough.



Brexit has always meant a variety of things. To some people it is an expression of anger against immigration. To some, it is some warped expression of patriotism. To a select few, it is a way to profit from obscure financial interests. Literally, it means Britain leaving the European Union, but the reasons people want this to happen are varied and sometimes contradictory. Which makes it impossible to imagine any Brexit deal that would make a majority of British people - or even a majority of Brexit enthusiasts - happy.



2. Whoops! Northern Ireland

When I was young, I had a book called Mind-Bending Lateral Thinking Puzzles. They were puzzles like: how do you put a pin in a balloon without popping it? To which the answer was: don't inflate the balloon. That sort of thing.



The British political establishment has treated the Irish border issue like a mind-bending lateral thinking puzzle. You are leaving a trade bloc with which you have a land border. Doing this means there will have to be barriers along that border. However, you cannot put barriers along the border because of historic political problems. What do you do?



Politicians seem to have assumed that at some point they will be able to flip to the back of the book and check the answers. But they obviously can't, because this is real life, not a children's puzzle book.



3. Post-Brexit Britain will be poorer and angrier

Various official reports have concluded that, whatever agreement is reached, Brexit will damage the UK's economy. Naturally, then, anti-Brexit protesters will continue to complain bitterly. With good reason. The country is shooting itself in the foot.



However, pro-Brexit protesters will keep complaining as well - things will be worse for them, too, after all. And this wasn't what they were promised during the referendum: many of the lies the Leave campaign told have yet to be definitively disproved. They will be, but only after Brexit has actually happened. So Brexiters will keep complaining. With good reason. They were lied to.



Perhaps the two sides will come together, united in anger against the political system that delivered this catastrophe? More likely, they'll continue to yell at each other.



4. People are less important than cheese

Over a million British people live in the EU, and over three million EU citizens live in the UK. We were promised multiple times that we wouldn't be treated as “bargaining chips” in the Brexit negotiations, yet of course we have been. We stand to lose some of our rights, although of course it'll be worse for people looking to emigrate in the future. How comforting.



Trade has dominated the headlines: German cars, French cheese, Italian wine. What will become of the port at Dover? Will the price of food rise in the UK? But it is people who drive cars, eat cheese, drink wine. People who buy stuff, and benefit from trade deals and a healthy economy. Which people will they be? Shouldn't that have been the first question answered?



Eine deutsche Version der Kolumne finden Sie hier.</s>The government will today sign a trade deal with Switzerland, heralded as the most significant such agreement in the run-up to Brexit.

The deal, known as a trade continuity agreement, will guarantee future trading terms between the two countries once the UK has left the EU.

It will be signed, in the Swiss city of Bern, by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and the Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin.

The agreement is designed to remove the threat of additional tariffs in trade between the two countries and to also to lift the possibility of additional duties on "the vast majority of goods".

The government says that "trading on these preferential terms", as opposed to sticking to the terms of the World Trade Organisation, "will deliver significant savings and help to safeguard British jobs".

It is claimed that the deal will, for instance, avoid around £8m of tariffs being added to the price of cars exported from the UK to Switzerland, while British consumers will benefit from lowers prices on Swiss goods, "such as clocks, watches and pharmaceutical products".

The trade between the two countries is reckoned to be worth more than £32bn per year, making this the biggest agreement signed since the UK voted to leave the European Union.

Previous deals have been signed with Chile, Israel and the Faroe Islands, but critics have claimed that too little progress has been made in securing agreements with vital trading partners.

Britain has long traded around the world under the terms of deals agreed by the European Union, a procedure that will come to an end after Brexit.

Dr Fox has been leading the process of either "rolling over" these deals - by mirroring their terms in new agreements bespoke to the UK - or negotiating fresh deals.

The EU has 40 agreements, covering trade with 71 different countries, that would need to be rolled over. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, these would need to be completed by 29 March, an ambition that many in British business now believe to be almost impossible.

Dr Fox says he has had assurances of support from dozens of countries around the world, but has so far only signed a handful of agreements. In particular, there are few signs of progress in negotiating deals with big trading partners such as Japan, South Korea and Canada.

Dr Fox arrived in Zurich last night on a flight from Dubai. He had been attending an international trade conference in the United Arab Emirates, where he encouraged British businesses to "look beyond Europe".

He has faced growing criticism for failing to sign more deals, and for appearing to criss-cross the globe to little effect. Last month, Dr Fox was accused of having "extremely low credibility" by the chief executive of Unipart, John Neill.</s>(Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story.

Business is brisk at Nim’s Fruit Crisps. Pineapples are imported from Costa Rica, kiwis from Italy and oranges and lemons from Spain. They’re then turned into healthy snacks for export to Israel, South Africa, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

You wouldn’t know that the company in southeast England is already about to head into the post-Brexit world without knowing what it will look like.

Nim’s will ship goods in coming weeks that are due to arrive at their destination after March 29, the date the U.K. plans to leave the European Union. The country still can’t agree on a deal to keep borders open and trade flowing. “We’re just going to wing it really,” founder Nimisha Raja said. “There’s not much more we can do.’’

The problem for British exporters is that the U.K. is yet to roll over the majority of the beneficial trade terms around the globe it gets through EU membership. That means goods being readied for dispatch that take as long as six weeks to reach destinations in Asia could end up sat in quarantine or face disputes over who pays any new customs duties.

Deals between the EU and other countries cover more than 11 percent of Britain’s trade. Liam Fox, the minister in charge of international trade, said last month that the major deals would be rolled over before March 29, though others wouldn’t.

“There will be a frantic look at contracts,” said Alex Veitch, a head of policy at the Freight Transport Association. “Changes in duties could increase the cost of a product massively.”

Some companies are trying to speed up delivery times to beat the deadline. Joe & Seph’s, a gourmet popcorn producer in London, has started air freighting its goods to markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore instead of sending them by sea, even though it costs more than double per shipment.

“It’s too big a risk,’’ said Adam Sopher, the company’s co-founder. “My relationship with my customers is the most important thing. The uncertainty is a nightmare.’’

The trade dilemma also applies for imports. Edinburgh-based haggis brand Macsween, which brings in pulses from Canada and onions from India and Egypt, has had more difficulty getting long-term contracts with its suppliers because of uncertainty over Britain’s future trading status.

“It makes it harder to plan our prices,” said James Macsween, managing director of the third-generation family business, which counts Marks & Spencer Group Plc as its biggest customer. “We were led to believe these trade deals would be sorted, but we’re in the unknown.’’

That said, U.K. exporters face a potentially significant benefit in a no-deal Brexit scenario if the pound depreciates further, which would make their goods more attractive for foreign buyers, said Sean Ramsden, chief executive of Ramsden International, which wholesales British products worldwide.

“There’s an element of insurance there,” Ramsden said. “While some markets may be slightly more challenging, it could be more than offset by our products being cheaper around the world.”

The U.K.’s Department for International Trade says avoiding disruption to Britain’s global trading relationships is a priority and that it continues to engage with all its trading partners. Britain has so far signed continuity trade agreements with Chile, the Faroe Islands and eastern and southern Africa, and has “initialed” a free-trade deal with Switzerland.

To contact the authors of this story: Joe Mayes in London at jmayes9@bloomberg.netJill Ward in London at jward98@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rodney Jefferson at r.jefferson@bloomberg.net
The United Kingdom and Switzerland sign a trade continuity agreement to maintain current trade relations post-Brexit.