UK minister says EU trade ties worth more than separate free trade deals

Douglas Alexander, the Scotland Secretary, was in Mumbai with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Environment Secretary Angela Eagle when he set out the case for changing Britain’s trade priorities. British ministers were discussing early problems in the implementation of the India agreement with Indian officials, including issues affecting small businesses and non-tariff barriers.

Alexander, who previously helped negotiate trade agreements with India and the United States as a trade minister under Keir Starmer, told the Guardian that joint trading arrangements with the European Union would bring a greater economic return than pursuing separate free trade agreements.

He said closer ties through a customs union or full EU membership would represent the more substantial gain. Britain trades with the EU almost twice as much as it does with the United States, while the bloc accounts for almost half of total UK trade. The US remains Britain’s largest individual trading partner.

Alexander contrasted that argument with the language of the 2016 Brexit campaign. Brexiteers had promised “a world of Britain as a buccaneering free trade nation in a world where barriers were coming down”, he said.

An agreement between Britain and India came into force earlier in 2026, and the price of Scottish whisky in India has since fallen by 10–15 percent.

Alexander said the long-term boost to UK gross domestic product from CPTPP membership was less than a tenth of 1 percent. He described the earlier Brexit vision as “post-imperial delusions”.

“The Channel is just 21 miles wide,” Alexander said.

Andy Burnham, Starmer’s successor, has called for a “serious dialogue” on Britain’s relationship with the EU, including possible re-entry. At next month’s EU summit, Burnham hopes to sign new trading deals covering emissions, electricity and agricultural products.

EU leaders have said they are willing to discuss British participation in the “Made in Europe” scheme. European leaders are also demanding that Britain impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, a step Reynolds has said he will not take merely because Brussels is applying pressure.