British businesses should look beyond Brexit and concentrate on making the nation "a 21st century trading superpower", International Trade Secretary Liam Fox urged on Tuesday.

Liam Fox recommends the UK explore trading opportunities with the US and China

Speaking to an Institute of Directors' (IoD) conference in London, Dr Fox said the country should overcome the "narrow bandwidth" focusing on the likely outcome of negotiations with the EU and, instead, explore the global trade opportunities offered by nations such as the US and China.In a subsequent radio interview, Dr Fox said a post-Brexit immigration policy should favour those coming to the UK because they already had a job offer. He said the 2016 referendum had shown that Britons rejected free movement but added that any future plans had to take into account the UK’s employment needs.'

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Liam Fox says that Brexit "isn't the only issue out there"

But Brexit "isn't the only issue that is out there", he insisted in his IoD speech, as he outlined a vision of businesses of all sizes tapping into emerging markets and expanding trade with existing partners.Dr Fox said Britain's competitors were drawing up plans to expand trade up to 15 years in the future and that UK business leaders must "widen our horizons, to lengthen our timeframes".He added: "It's really important that we don't have such a narrow bandwidth that we only think about Brexit."It's really interesting when I go to China, when I go to other parts of the world, they talk about the global economy, they talk about tariffs, talk about the United States and China, they talk about the WTO (World Trade Organisation)."And in the UK we talk about Brexit and Brexit and Brexit. It is an important issue, but it isn't the only issue that is out there in terms of global trade."Dr Fox said the government wanted to increase exports as a proportion of UK GDP from 30 to 35 per cent of GDP by encouraging more businesses to sell goods and services overseas and, after Brexit, to "embrace the opportunities that the changing pattern of global trade presents".He added: "We must raise our ambitions, widen our horizons and expand our timescales. Europe is, and will, continue to be an important market for our goods and services, but there is a world beyond Europe and a time beyond Brexit."

Liam Fox's export strategy

His Export Strategy to achieve this included:

• Encouraging and inspiring more businesses to export, including an "increased focus on amplifying the voice of existing exporters to inspire other businesses and facilitating peer-to-peer learning".
• Giving businesses information, advice and practical assistance on exporting.
• Connecting UK businesses to overseas buyers, markets and each other.
• Putting "finance at the heart of our offer".

In his radio interview with LBC, Dr Fox said: “I think the public can differentiate between people who come here with a job and will be contributing to the economy and those who under free movement were able to come to the United Kingdom and use our public services without every having contributed to them.“We need to look in the future at how we match our employment opportunities with our migration policy.“The big problem with free movement from Europe was that people were able to come to Great Britain without having a job and they were able to use our public services like schools and hospitals and housing without ever having contributed."Read more about Brexit and international affairs in our Brexit section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit

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