UK facing 'significant uphill challenge' on post-Brexit trade, says expert, as Trade Bill published

The Trade Bill contains provisions allowing a post-Brexit UK to transition between existing EU trade agreements with third countries and its own arrangements, and to allow for independent UK access to international government contracts. It will be followed by a Customs Bill, which will set out further tax-related elements of the UK's future trade policy.

The legislation builds on the proposals set out in the government's white paper on international trade, published last month. The UK cannot enter into any trade agreements on its own behalf until after it leaves the EU in March 2019.

EU law expert Guy Lougher of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, described the bill as "another step forward in the process of the UK's entering into trade deals with the large number of countries with which the EU has already signed up trade agreements". However, he warned an "orderly transition" from the current arrangements would be challenging.

"Practically speaking, the UK faces a significant uphill challenge in ensuring an orderly transition from the deals which the EU has struck onto signing its own trade agreements – especially given that, whilst it remains an EU member state, the UK is constrained in its ability to negotiate new trade deals with third countries," he said.

In its white paper on international trade, the government said that it needed to prioritise deals with EU countries to replace the single market, and new deals with non-EU countries to enable trade once the UK falls out of existing trade deals between the EU and those countries. It also said that the UK needed a new regulator to deal with trade disputes, and a trade remedies framework to protect domestic industry against unfair trade practices or unexpected surges in imports.

As drafted, the Trade Bill would allow the UK to replicate over 40 existing trade agreements between the EU and other countries. It would also allow the UK to continue to access the Agreement on Government Procurement (AGA), governing £1.3 trillion worth of government contracts and procurement opportunities in 47 countries, on an independent basis.

The bill would also establish a new, independent Trade Remedies Authority to defend UK businesses against unfair trade practices, and ensure that the UK government is legally able to gather and share trade information. The Customs Bill, which is due to be published shortly, will allow the government to create a standalone customs regime, amend the VAT and excise regimes and charge and vary customs duty on goods, including the ability to set preferential or additional duty rates in certain circumstances.

Guy Lougher explained that, under the current system, the EU imposed anti-dumping measures to protect certain industries from being flooded by below-cost imports from non-EU countries. This is the basis, for example, on which the EU steel industry is protected against below cost imports from China, he said.

"As a non-EU state, the UK post-Brexit will cease to be covered by the EU's anti-dumping duties," he said. "The Trade Bill is therefore important in that it sets out the government's approach to trade remedies measures, which will be needed to replace the EU anti-dumping measures that will cease to apply to, and protect, UK businesses post-Brexit."

Earlier this week, the House of Commons Procedure Committee published the first of two planned reports on the implications of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which is currently before parliament. The report highlights the concerns around the powers that the bill, as drafted, gives ministers to 'correct' the post-Brexit statute book through the use of delegated legislation.

The committee is calling on the government to appoint a cross-party committee, based on the existing European Scrutiny Committee, whose role it would be to examine each piece of delegated legislation made by ministers and decide which ones should receive further scrutiny by MPs. These instruments would then be sent to a general committee of MPs for further debate, or could even be debated by the full House of Commons in exceptional circumstances.