Post-Brexit trade deals will boost global security, claims UK's top negotiator
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A series of post-Brexit trade deals will help make the world a safer place, the UK's top trade adviser has claimed.
Crawford Falconer, who starts work as chief adviser at the Department for International Trade this week, said there was a "powerful political and security element" to Britain's future trade deals.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the New Zealander said a more liberal trade policy would help make the world a safer place.
“History is littered with instances of the destructive political consequences of closed markets," he writes.
This was a lesson well understood at the end of the last century’s global conflicts. It was at the core of the post-war global order.”
Mr Falconer, who previously worked as New Zealand's ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, said other countries shared the UK's desire to open up new market and remove barriers to trade.
“Many countries still recognise that open trade policies directed at engaging with others are at the core of any strategy to improve the global prospects for political openness and stability.
"They are already looking to partner with us to re-energise that agenda.”
However reports this weekend suggested some ministers are concerned that a flagship deal with the US could be scuppered because of Donald Trump's domestic political problems.
One minister told the Mail on Sunday it was crucial for the UK that Mr Trump remains in office.
"Davis knows Trump is our best hope of getting a first-rate trade deal...We need to make as much progress with the US as we can while he is still there. If he goes it will be a different story."
