Customs Union With EU After Brexit Would Sell Out U.K, Fox Says

(Bloomberg) -- Trade Secretary Liam Fox will accuse the British opposition Labour Party of plotting to “sell out” the country's interests in a hard-hitting speech on Tuesday -- but his real target may be closer to home.  

Some members of Fox's own Conservative party are weighing up whether to join Labour and rebel against his -- and Prime Minister Theresa May's -- Brexit policy of taking the U.K. out of the customs union.

His speech also puts him at odds with the U.K.'s major business lobby, the Confederation of British Industry, which wants the government to negotiate an agreement that guarantees tariff-free trade with the EU after Brexit.

Staying in a customs union with the EU after Brexit “would be a complete sell out of Britain's national interests,” Fox will say at a speech at Bloomberg's European headquarters, according to extracts released by his office. “The inevitable price of trying to negotiate with one arm tied behind our back is that we would become less attractive to potential trade partners and forfeit many of the opportunities that would otherwise be available to us.”

While Britain remains in the customs deal, it cannot break away from Europe's tariff regime to strike its own free-trade deals with other countries around the world. That's what Fox and other Brexit-campaigners say will be the biggest economic win from leaving the EU club next year. 

A vote on the issue is likely in the weeks ahead, and some say it could trigger a crisis that would threaten May's position. 

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Emma Ross-Thomas

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