British business competitiveness will suffer if Britons vote to leave the Europe Union, the head of the World Trade Organization warned during a visit to London on Tuesday (7 June).
This is a further setback for the hopes of British agriculture in the event of the UK leaving the European Union.
Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO director-general, said he expected any talks to be long and difficult, adding: "We haven’t had any discussions about the process.
"We don’t know what the process would be. We do know it would be a very unusual situation."
Azevêdo said the position was complicated by the fact that all Britain’s trade commitments had been negotiated by the EU and that these would cease to apply in the event of a decision to leave.
Warning that it would be impossible for the UK to “cut and paste” its old EU trade deals into new agreements, Azevêdo said the UK would be starting from scratch without the institutional machinery necessary to negotiate trade deals.
Azevedo has already said that Britain would have to renegotiate its relationship with the rest of the World Trade Organization, which could take years or decades, and he reiterated that it would not be a simple job.
"Britain is a member of the WTO and will continue to be a member of the WTO. But it will be a member with no country-specific commitments. We have had no other situation like that," he said.
