Brexit near-term negative but long-term +ve for UK: Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak, an Indian origin Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom feels that though Brexit would pose some problems to UK in the short-term, in the long-run, it would stand to benefit the nation. According to him fundamentals of the UK economy are strong.

His reasons for supporting Brexit are that Europena Union's trade failings are taking an increasingly heavy toll on UK, with not a single free trade agreement with a top 10 economy.

Sunak is married to Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy's daughter.

Below is the verbatim transcript of Rishi Sunak’s interview to Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18.Q: You have been absolutely clear, you voted for UK to leave the European Union (EU) and you believe that that is in the best interest of the UK in the long-term. However, in the short-term, where the country continues to be mired with uncertainty, the political leadership does not want to sort of take forward this referendum, we don’t have clarity on when Article 50 will be triggered. In the short-term don’t you believe that we are going to be faced with more pain than gain?A: I think clearly in the short-term there is uncertainty as you said whilst we choose a new leader of the Conservative Party and therefore a new Prime Minister. That process is likely to be conducted quite swiftly now in the following week. So, I think once we have a new Prime Minister in place that will give everybody a lot of certainty and a lot of calm about the next steps forward in our renegotiation with Europe.I think the other thing I would say is that the fundamentals of the UK economy are very strong. Unemployment is low, inflation is low, growth has been positive for quite a long time in contrast of our European partners and the deficit is coming down every single year. So, I think the fundamentals are strong, of course there is a little bit uncertainty right now but that is soon to be ended by the choosing of a new Prime Minister for the UK.Q: Your argument for the UK to exit the EU is largely to do with the fact that the EU you believe has restricted the UK from crucial trade deals. You believe that the UK could have done much better on the trade front if it hadn’t been for the EU. Do you feel confident and optimistic that the UK will be a lot more aggressive in inking new trade deals with countries like India and China for instance?A: Not only am I optimistic, I am incredibly  excited about that and that was something I talked about during the campaign. If you look at the free trade performance of countries like Australia or Canada or Switzerland or South Korea, all of those countries have a better track record in signing really great free trade deals all around the world and in fact much more than the EU ever had and independent UK is going to be able to do that. We have a reputation of being an outward looking global trading nation, that is our history and heritage and we are keen to get on with that. I think a free trade deal with India which had taken several years and gone nowhere with the EU, hopefully now can be turbo charged. Would it be a bilateral agreement between the UK and India and something that we hope we can get on with very quickly and we are already seeing countries around the world Australia, New Zealand, South Korea already saying that they are looking forward to reaching negotiations with us and signing free trade deals as soon as possible.Q: Trade deals take long to fructify and the negotiations excruciatingly long and sometimes painful but in the interim what are the measures that we can expect the government to take once you have a new Prime Minister in place to try and keep investments in the UK and to try and attract fresh investments into the UK? There has been a lot of talk around further reduction in corporate tax rates, corporate tax rates at 18 percent already amongst the lowest in the world in the UK. What more can we truly expect?A: The UK is already an incredibly attractive place to invest. India invests more in the UK than it does in rest of the EU put together. So, that gives you a sense of that. We have very low and attractive corporate tax rates, we have skilled labour force, we have a pretty stable and pro enterprise regulatory regime and great legal system as well, none of those things have changed, all those things remain. After we leave the EU some of those things have the potential to be improved. You mentioned corporate tax rates, that is something that the chancellor has mentioned yesterday, that is something that he is looking at and it is something that you might well see just to confirm our place in the world as someone who is open for business and wants to attract new business to the UK. However beyond that there is not much that needs to be done in the sense that our fundamentals are very strong and this is a great place to invest.For full interview watch accompanying video.