Liam Fox says Britain and EU trade negotiations will be finished by 2020

Britain’s new International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, has said he expects Britain’s relations with the EU to be settled by 2020.

The Brexit MP said it is likely Article 50, which begins the formal process to leave the EU, will be triggered early next year after the country narrowly voted to leave the union in a referendum on 23 June.

The MP, who returned to the Cabinet under new Prime Minister Theresa May after being forced to resign in disgrace in 2011, also said it was unlikely the UK would join a customs union with the EU.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal during a three day visit to the US, he said he wanted to “dispel the idea” that Britain leaving the EU is “somehow an anti-free market decision”.

He said it was “in fact the reverse” and he looked forward to Britain “becoming a much more outward-looking country”.

His visit to the US is part of a bid to quieten the concerns of officials and businesses who worry about Britain’s future role in the global economy.

Speaking during the campaign, US President Barack Obama said Britain would “go to the back of the queue” when it came to trade negotiations if it voted to leave.

During a speech in Chicago, Dr Fox said he favoured negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU and said it was in the other member countries interest to come to an agreement, the Guardian reports.

He said the EU had built up a net £70bn trade surplus with the UK which was “why it is in the interests of fellow European Union members that we leave in a way that creates minimal disruption for the continent”.

In contrast, he said of the top 10 countries the UK had a trade surplus with, only one, Ireland, was in the EU.

The MP for North Somerset said: “We will have the opportunity to make our tax systems even more competitive, take an axe to red tape that can hinder businesses, and shape a bright future for the UK as a beacon for open trade.”

Dr Fox's optimism is in contrast to a statement by Chancellor Philip Hammond, who said Brexit will cast a two-year "shadow" over the world economy while the UK's departure is being negotiated.

He told Sky News it was not a surprise that international markets went into freefall after the result: "It was a shock to the economic system, it was not something markets or businesses were expecting, so obviously there was going to be a reaction or a response to that.

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"And because there will now be a fairly lengthy negotiating period there is going to be uncertainty about the outcome hanging over the world economic outlook for the next few years".

The Department for International Trade and the Department for Leaving the European Union, run by another Brexiteer David Davis, were formed by Ms May in the wake of the decision to leave the EU.

Despite backing the Remain side, Ms May made overtures to the profoundly Eurosceptic Conservative membership during the Tory leadership campaign by declaring "Brexit means Brexit".