The future of the controversial TTIP trade agreement looks “less than secure”, Britain’s new International Trade Secretary has said.

Liam Fox, a staunch Brexiteer, reiterated his support for the US-EU trade treaty and said the Government would continue to push it forward even though it was leaving the EU.

But he said recent comments by French and German ministers showed that it may never happen, despite Britain’s support.

“While we remain in the EU we will continue to push all free trade agreements possible because we believe in global trade liberalisation. That includes the Government’s position of support for TTIP,” Mr Fox told the House of Commons.

“It remains the US clear priority to get this agreement but I think he would accept that given the comments that have come in France and Germany and the fact that we have elections in both those countries next year the future of TTIP, at least in the immediate future, looks less than secure.”

Little is known for certain about the substance of TTIP because it is being negotiated in secret between the EU and US. Leaks pieced together by campaigners have however painted a picture of a deal that would allow multinational corporations to sue governments for policies that harm their profits.

This would occur through a system called “investor state dispute settlement” that has been used in other trade deals around the world.

Germany’s vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said late last month that TTIP had failed “but no one is really admitting it”. France’s trade minister also suggested that negotiations were not proceeding to plan and should stop, while France President Francois Hollande has said he would not accept the deal in its current form.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with her coalition partner Sigmar Gabriel. Germany has been cool on TTIP recently (Reuters)

Mr Fox made his comments at his first session at the dispatch box as head of the new Department for International Trade on Thursday morning.

Looking at post-Brexit trade arrangements more generally, the minister also admitted that Britain could not even begin formally negotiating free trade accords with other countries until it had already left the European Union.

The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP The NHS Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. One of the main aims of TTIP is to open up Europe’s public health, education and water services to US companies. This could essentially mean the privatisation of the NHS. The European Commission has claimed that public services will be kept out of TTIP. However, according to the Huffington Post, the UK Trade Minister Lord Livingston has admitted that talks about the NHS were still on the table Getty The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Food and environmental safety TTIP’s ‘regulatory convergence’ agenda will seek to bring EU standards on food safety and the environment closer to those of the US. But US regulations are much less strict, with 70 per cent of all processed foods sold in US supermarkets now containing genetically modified ingredients. By contrast, the EU allows virtually no GM foods. The US also has far laxer restrictions on the use of pesticides. It also uses growth hormones in its beef which are restricted in Europe due to links to cancer. US farmers have tried to have these restrictions lifted repeatedly in the past through the World Trade Organisation and it is likely that they will use TTIP to do so again Getty The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Banking regulations TTIP cuts both ways. The UK, under the influence of the all-powerful City of London, is thought to be seeking a loosening of US banking regulations. America’s financial rules are tougher than ours. They were put into place after the financial crisis to directly curb the powers of bankers and avoid a similar crisis happening again. TTIP, it is feared, will remove those restrictions, effectively handing all those powers back to the bankers Getty/Bloomberg The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Privacy Remember ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)? It was thrown out by a massive majority in the European Parliament in 2012 after a huge public backlash against what was rightly seen as an attack on individual privacy where internet service providers would be required to monitor people’s online activity. Well, it’s feared that TTIP could be bringing back ACTA’s central elements, proving that if the democratic approach doesn’t work, there’s always the back door. An easing of data privacy laws and a restriction of public access to pharmaceutical companies’ clinical trials are also thought to be on the cards AFP/Getty Images The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Jobs The EU has admitted that TTIP will probably cause unemployment as jobs switch to the US, where labour standards and trade union rights are lower. It has even advised EU members to draw on European support funds to compensate for the expected unemployment. Examples from other similar bi-lateral trade agreements around the world support the case for job losses. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico caused the loss of one million US jobs over 12 years, instead of the hundreds of thousands of extra that were promised Dave Thompson/Getty Images The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Democracy TTIP’s biggest threat to society is its inherent assault on democracy. One of the main aims of TTIP is the introduction of Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS), which allow companies to sue governments if those governments’ policies cause a loss of profits. In effect it means unelected transnational corporations can dictate the policies of democratically elected governments AFP/Getty

With the start of secession negotiations very unlikely to begin before even the end of the year, and their end expected to be between two and five years time, new trade deals appear a long way off.

“While we are not able to negotiate in terms of concluding a deal while we’re members of the EU there is nothing to stop us having discussion and scoping out future agreements,” he said.

“We have now set up a deal to set up a trade working group with India to look at how we remove barriers to trade ahead of negotiating a free trade agreement on our exit from the European Union.”

There was little additional information from the Department for International Trade team on whether Britain would remain in the European single market.

Greg Hands, another minister at the department said: “Our objective will be to gain as much access to European markets as we can, consistent with the way people across the whole of the UK voted on the 23 June. That is the purpose of our approach.”

That statement came after Theresa May stonewalled on the issue of single market membership during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, said he thought membership of the single market was not likely given moves to restrict freedom of movement.