Britain’s international trade secretary Liam Fox will use a speech Tuesday to criticise staying in a customs union with the EU following Brexit, a day after the opposition Labour Party announced a policy shift in favour of the move.
Mr Fox will argue that remaining in a customs union would limit Britain’s ability to agree future free trade deals and hand Brussels “considerable control of the UK’s external trade policy”, according to advance excerpts of his speech.
“As rule takers, without any say in how the rules were made, we would be in a worse position than we are today,” he will say.
“It would be a complete sell-out of Britain’s national interests.”
In an extraordinary move for a Conservative minister, Mr Fox will attack business groups that have tentatively backed Mr Corbyn.
“We cannot allow the practices and patterns of the past to constrain the opportunities of the future,” he will say in a speech at Bloomberg in London. “Our approach should not be premised on simply identifying how much of our current relationship we want to keep, but what we need to prosper in a rapidly changing global environment.”
His address will come after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called Monday for a new post-Brexit customs union with the EU that could force prime minister Theresa May to reverse her stubborn opposition to the idea.
Just days before a keynote speech by Mrs May on the future trading relationship with the European Union, the opposition leader drew a clear line between Labour’s policy and that of the government.
“Labour would seek to negotiate a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union to ensure that there are no tariffs with Europe,” he said in Coventry, central England.
Mr Corbyn added this would also “help avoid any need whatsoever for a hard border in Northern Ireland”, where the prospect of a return of customs checks has prompted concern about the fragile peace in the province.
His commitment puts the veteran left-winger in the unusual position of aligning with the Confederation of British Industry, the country’s big business lobby.
Britain is currently part of the EU’s customs union, which has a common external tariff on imports, allowing goods to move freely inside the area.
Mr Fox will argue that maintaining a customs union would prevent Britain from setting the rules in sectors of its economy, handicapping free trade deals with non-EU countries.
“The inevitable price of trying to negotiate with one arm tied behind our back is that we would become less attractive to potential trade partners and forfeit many of the opportunities that would otherwise be available to us,” he will add.
However, Mr Corbyn argued any future EU customs agreement would “need to ensure the UK has a say in future trade deals”, adding Britain should not become a “mere rule-taker”.
He stressed Labour’s priority was protecting people’s jobs and living standards.
Citing the example of integrated supply chains in the car industry, he argued that it “makes no sense” for Britain to turn its back on “tariff-free trading rules that have served us well”.
Labour’s position ups the pressure on Mrs May ahead of a major speech on Friday and drew an immediately sharp response from leading eurosceptics in her Conservative party.
“Corbyn’s Brexit plan would leave the UK a colony of the EU – unable to take back control of our borders or our trade policy,” foreign secretary Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
Referring to the trade talks in Brussels which are due to start in April, he added that the speech was a “white flag from Labour before talks even begin”.
The prime minister’s spokesman was unequivocal about Mrs May’s position, saying: “The government will not be joining a customs union.
“We want to have the freedom to sign our own trade deals and to reach out into the world.”
But a group of Conservative rebel MPs disagree and have tabled an amendment to a draft bill going through parliament calling for a new customs union.
Mr Corbyn made an appeal Monday to “MPs of all parties, prepared to put the people’s interests before ideological fantasies” to join his position.
The Conservatives only have a slim majority in the House of Commons, thanks to support from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists (DUP).
DUP lawmaker Sammy Wilson accused Mr Corbyn of a “blatant attempt to bring down the government”.
Some members of Corbyn’s own party are also unhappy, suggesting that maintaining close ties with the EU is a betrayal of the 2016 vote for Brexit.
“It’s the latest wheeze by the well-oiled machine in this country to undo the referendum,” eurosceptic Labour MP Frank Field told the Daily Telegraph.
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Azhar Ali (capt), Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Abbas, Yasir Shah, Usman Shinwari
The five pillars of Islam
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
The five pillars of Islam
Brief scores:
Toss: Northern Warriors, elected to field first
Bengal Tigers 130-1 (10 ov)
Roy 60 not out, Rutherford 47 not out
Northern Warriors 94-7 (10 ov)
Simmons 44; Yamin 4-4
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Keep it fun and engaging
Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
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Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
- Tourism industry knowledge.
- Professional ethics.
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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