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Let's look in more detail into what the UK's failure to roll over existing trade deals for the UK's trade policy post-Brexit - because it significantly complicates plans for new deals 1/ 
First of all in the event of a deal - we don't know if all existing EU trade agreement partners will agree to continue treating the UK as part of the EU, and we will have a much reduced power to raise issues as part of the agreement - more here 2/ ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…
Notwithstanding the lack of clear route out of a customs union in a deal situation Liam Fox had expected to start talks with the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Australia. But we will also need to replicate existing arrangements 3/
You are potentially talking about 30+ negotiations again, so choices will have to be made. Why in this instance is New Zealand a priority over Turkey given the latter is a much larger trade partner? 4/
We also need to recall that every agreement - even the smallest - that we fail to replicate means that our businesses will face worse terms than EU competitors. In totality that will add up the more agreements we decide not to replicate 5/
Then there are the relationships between agreements - notably those where there is close regulatory alignment with the EU (e.g. Ukraine) and those which will require regulatory change (new deals with US or CPTPP) 6/
There's also the question of UK priorities for trade deals - why are we doing them? Insofar as we know anything, Liam Fox says digital services will be prioritised. But what that actually means in trade agreement terms we don't know 7/
Deal is hard then for trade policy, and we have no answers as yet. No-deal is even worse, as we lose preferential access to most markets from the end of next month. But with full control over trade policy. Again what do we prioritise? 8/
Bear in mind, negotiating trade deals takes time. Our failure to complete existing agreements in two years to date proves the point (we'll allow the first few months of DIT for recruitment etc). Our post-Brexit programme is many years of work 9/
And business is rightly going to be lobbying for the agreements they in particular benefit from. As well as for a comprehensive agreement with our most important trading partner, the EU 10/
So the questions for Liam Fox are to explain his priorities in country and policy terms and his timetable for completing what is a hugely ambitious programme. Forget project fear, we are now facing project trade policy reality 11/ end prospectmagazine.co.uk/economics-and-…
