That's completely incorrect Pete
The EU has an extensive network of trade agreements of various types with around 50 countries. Some are comprehensive free trade agreements such as the FTAs with Canada, CARIFORUM states, Chile, Mexico and Korea.
Once the UK exits the EU, the existing EU FTAs will no longer be applicable to the UK. This means that the UK will lose preferential market access to the EU’s partner countries. Some commentators have suggested that, under international law, the UK could potentially remain a party to some of the EU FTAs post Brexit. In my opinion, there are legal and practical reasons why current EU FTAs cannot continue to apply to the UK automatically.
From a legal perspective, the EU FTAs would cease to apply to the UK because the UK’s rights and obligations under these treaties only apply to the UK in its capacity as a Member State and not as a sovereign state in its own capacity. More importantly, core disciplines covered in all EU FTAs are those which are considered to be of exclusive competence of the EU, including the common commercial policy (CCP). Although the scope of the CCP is the cause of much controversy, there is no doubt that it covers at least the following disciplines: trade in goods, trade defences, foreign investment, services, the commercial aspects of intellectual property and competition.
Consequently, once the UK leaves the EU, the rights and commitments the UK enjoys under the CCP will no longer apply to the UK because such rights emanate only as a result of the UK’s status as a Member State. Even assuming that, in theory, the UK has residual rights under the EU FTAs, the territorial scope of the EU FTAs means that the UK territory will be excluded from the FTAs once Britain leaves the EU. All EU FTAs employ the term “the territory of each Party” or “the territory of the importing Party”. The term “Party” is defined, on the one hand, the “European Union and its Member States” as one party, and the third country as the other party. The term “territory” is also defined in more or less the same terms. For example the EU-Mexico FTA provides that, “
[t]his Agreement shall apply to the territory in which the Treaty establishing the European Community is applied under the conditions laid down in that Treaty, on the one hand, and to the territory of the United Mexican States, on the other.” It is thus clear that the intent is that the FTAs only apply to states which are governed by the EU treaties. Once the UK exits the EU the EU treaties will no longer be applicable to the UK, hence, the EU FTAs cease to apply to the UK because the UK will be outside the territorial scope of the treaties.
It is also worth noting that a UK unilateral declaration or even an agreement between the EU, the UK and third countries to allow the UK to continue benefiting from the EU FTAs would not resolve the risk of trade disruption.
Certain protocols would need to be put in place to cover the practicalities of dealing with, for example, tariff quotas, the separate rights and obligations of all parties, and the dispute resolution mechanism in case of an alleged breach of the treaty. From a practical perspective, the UK would need to negotiate new FTAs. Given the limited human capabilities to negotiate a considerable number of trade agreements with third countries in a short period of time, the UK could negotiate interim agreements (very similar terms as the EU FTAs) with a number of like-minded EU trade partners during the two year period. This would be crucial to minimise disruption and ensure British companies to continue benefiting from existing EU FTAs.
https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/resourc...-third-countries-part-2-luis-gonzalez-garcia/
