Liam Fox today shot down hopes of a quick trade deal with President Trump amid reports that Boris Johnson is planning to make it his top priority if he wins the keys to No 10.
The International Trade Secretary also predicted that the Trump administration would lose interest unless a deal allowed American agriculture produce to flood into Britain, suggesting Mr Johnson could struggle to keep his promise to have a deal that excludes controversial chlorine-washed chicken.
Mr Fox pointed out that it would be illegal to start formal negotiations before Britain quits the European Union and said it could prove difficult to get a deal approved during the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections.
“So, even if you negotiate things quickly, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to ratify them,” Mr Fox, who is backing rival Jeremy Hunt’s leadership campaign, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
A report in The Times, quoting unnamed “allies” of Mr Johnson, said the leadership frontrunner hoped to have a simple trade pact, possibly on only one area of trade, ready to go on October 31, his deadline for Brexit “come what may”.
But Mr Fox suggested it was an impossible timetable.
“We can’t negotiate anything with the US until after we’ve left the European Union,” he said. “It would be in breach of European law for us to do that.”
The approaching US election was an “added complication” because it was “quite hard to get things through Congress” in a pre-election year.
The concept of a single-area pact was also tricky, he said. “If you go to the US and you say we’re going to take any discussions on agricultural access off the agenda, you’ll find that they close down pretty quickly in terms of the willingness to discuss things.”
He added: “But it’s certainly true that we should be trying to get an agreement with the United States as quickly as we possibly can.”
Mr Johnson issued a call to 160,000 Conservative members to send in their postal votes today. “This is it, folks,” he tweeted. “Less than 200 hours before polls close. As Prime Minister, I’ll deliver Brexit by 31st October, unite the country and stop Jeremy Corbyn getting into Downing Street.”
