UK Chancellor of Exchequer Philip Hammond rejected the call from business leaders on customs union after Brexit. Hammond said that government shared the CBI’s desire to “minimise frictions and burdens, to avoid new barriers in Ireland and to grow British exports”.
However, he emphasized that “we do not agree that staying in the customs union is necessary to deliver them.” And he tried to persuade the business leaders that ministers were “confident we can develop a solution that will allow us to move forward while meeting your concerns”.
This was in response to CBI President Paul Drechsler’s speech in the in the group’s annual dinner. There Paul Drechsler urged US Prime minister Theresa May to “break the Brexit logjam and fast”. And he added that UK should remain in the customs union with the EU “unless and until an alternative is ready and workable”.
