UK trade on a bright future after Brexit, says ADAM AFRIYIE MP

The dire predictions of fiscal and economic meltdown have not come to pass and it is hard to recall a period of such low unemployment.

Yet these doomologists cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that we might have a bright future outside the EU as they re-spin the press releases from Brussels as unqualified truth. They may have a point, however.

If we fail to embrace world trade post-Brexit, their predictions could well come true.

In 2016, the UK had a £34billion trade surplus with countries outside the EU and a £71billion trade deficit within the EU. It is quite clear where the greater demand for British goods and services is coming from.

Trading without tariffs can lift the economies of all participants. It is a win-win situation and reassuring that our natural allies and partners, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA, all say they wish to sign trade deals as quickly as possible.

Rapidly growing countries have also been held back from trading more with Britain due to EU regulations.

The pent-up demand from countries such as Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Brazil, Colombia, Switzerland and China needs to be uncorked. Wealth is created by consumers buying the goods and services they need at the best prices available, while businesses compete with each other to produce those goods and services in the most productive way.

One thing is for sure. Wealth creation is not fixed by geography. Europe may have been the wealthiest continent in the last century but it has been in relative decline for decades.

We need to increase our trade with high-growth, trade-rich countries by freeing ourselves from the unnecessary aspects of the EU single market. In the longterm we need to strike free trade deals with the major trading nations of tomorrow.

It seems to me that the African continent is a prime contender for attention.

The perception of African nations as aid supplicants is too often the predominant image shared in the West. Yet some have been seeing some of the highest growth rates in the world.

As a Briton with a Ghanaian father I am often in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. It is easy to see how rapid a country’s development has been when it is physical: telephone poles erected, sewers built and tower blocks constructed.

The growth of the oil and gas industry is totemic and supported by long-term British investment and commitment. It is also striking to see the penetration of the digital economy in the form of smartphones, online banking and mobile applications that help ordinary people to trade.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has made it clear that he wants Ghana to be an equal partner in trade. The decision to protect our foreign aid budget may not have been without controversy. Yet shared prosperity is in our national interest and if it helps to boost markets and trade to such a degree that emerging economies can support themselves, it will have been money well spent.

In my role as the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Ghana I can personally attest that everyone I have met there, from the President and ministers to civil servants and businessmen, wants to do more business with Britain.

Across the continent hundreds of millions of Africans want to see their countries develop and trade as equal partners with the West.

In Britain we have a great deal of expertise and experience in areas where Africa will need to develop, such as agri-technology, finance and professional and legal services.

Those who doubt the trading opportunities offered by Africa should remember what has happened to China. In 1980, China’s economy was the size of Canada. It is now second only to the USA. Let’s take the blinkers off.

There is an economic landscape beyond the EU. I am optimistic that we will have a prosperous post-Brexit future if we engage with the African continent as equal partners in trade.