30th Nov 2018 13:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Prime Minister Theresa May said she plans to discuss with other G20 leaders potential free-trade deals that Britain could sign after it leaves the EU.
"For the first time in more than four decades, the UK will have an independent trade policy," May is expected to say at a G20 summit in Argentina, according to advance remarks reported by British media.
"We will play a full and active role on trade on the global stage, working with friends new and old, at a time of unprecedented global inter-connectedness," she plans to say.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox was scheduled to deliver a speech in Britain later Friday, urging the country to "raise our sights, and acknowledge that there is a world beyond Europe, and a time beyond Brexit."
"The world's fifth-largest economy taking its seat at the WTO [World Trade Organization], as a powerful and unabashed defender of free trade, will be a key moment for the UK," Fox said.
"It is one of the most important, if seldom mentioned, aspects of Brexit," he added.
Fox backs the Brexit deal negotiated by May, who has started touring Britain to rally the public behind it, ahead of a vote in parliament on December 11.
The deal will give Britain "a firm and stable base on which to leave the EU and build this country's global future," Fox said in his speech.
May has told lawmakers they face a choice between accepting the deal or going "back to square one."