Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox addresses the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Britain October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British trade minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday it was unacceptable for trading nations to turn their back on free trade having previously reaped the benefits of such a system.

“Those who have benefited most from free-trade in the past cannot pull up the drawbridges behind them. It is completely unacceptable,” Fox said at his Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester.