Chlorinated chicken, toxic toys and rapacious insurers extracting profits from the NHS. According to some, when Britain leaves the EU’s customs union, the dangers will be severe. This is, of course, ridiculous. With an independent trade policy, we will be free to reject any trade proposals we dislike, and able to strike deals that suit the specific needs of our economy. While Britain is the world’s second-largest services exporter, for example, services have never been important for EU trade negotiators. We will soon be able to prioritise services as well as goods in deals with the world’s fastest-growing economies: 90 per cent of future economic growth is forecast to come from outside Europe, with one third coming from China alone. Yet the EU has no trade agreement with China, nor with the United States. This opportunity is now in danger, however, because a cross-party group of MPs has tabled amendments to force ministers to “maintain the United Kingdom’s participation in the EU’s customs union”. If we did this, we would expose ourselves to extraordinary risk. No country outside the EU, other than Monaco, is a member of the customs union. Not even Norway, which is in the single market, has joined it. This is because if they did so, EU negotiators would surrender access to their markets in return for trading rights with third countries that suit the EU, but not them.
The former Chief of Staff to the UK Prime Minister has warned that staying in the EU customs union after Brexit will endanger the prospect of other trade opportunities. Nick Timothy writes that staying in would restrict the UK's freedom to negotiate agreements with other countries, and cites the example of countries such as Norway, which is in the single market but has remained outside the customs union. However, he argues that to maintain tariff-free trade with the EU and avoid non-tariff barriers, a "close customs partnership" will be required with regulatory co-operation and a comprehensive trade agreement.