I really find it quite insulting that the United Kingdom, the fifth biggest economy in the world, should be described as a dwarf by the hon. Gentleman. We are one of the most successful global economies. It is also worth pointing out that the European Union does not have a trade agreement with China or with the United States because it was too difficult to get an agreement with the 28 nations in those negotiations. He is right to suggest that economies of scale have a role in trade agreements, but so also does the ability to conclude those agreements and to ratify them. That has shown itself to be easier when dealing with single nations, which is why Australia has a trade agreement with China but the European Union does not.
Future Free Trade Agreements
Proceeding contribution from
Liam Fox
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Thursday, 21 February 2019.
It occurred during Debate on Future Free Trade Agreements.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
654 c1623 
Session
2017-19
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2019-02-22 16:19:54 +0000
URI
http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-02-21/19022173000348
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-02-21/19022173000348
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-02-21/19022173000348