Brexit is a cloud hanging over the UK economy. Businesses are unsure what our trading relationships will be, workers are uncertain about the long term and investors are waiting to see what sort of access to markets the UK will have worldwide.

Britain isn’t just on the verge of a leap into the unknown – we are sending signals to the wider world that once-valued alliances are no longer our priority. So it is vital that the UK takes steps now to demonstrate our commitment to internationalism and alliance-building; that Britain may have said “no” to the institutions of the EU, but we are still up for pacts and deals and cooperation with the wider world.

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Our country has retained a pivotal role in world events for the past century because of our willingness to engage, to reach out, engage globally – which is why I want to see us forge a new internationalism. Britain must promote our progressive values and innovation, while continuing to play that leading role in the world.

Following the decision to leave the EU, we must urgently offset that step out of international engagement where we can, and there are practical options we can embrace now: Britain should rejoin the European Free Trade Association (Efta) we helped create 57 years ago. It was established as an alternative trading bloc for European countries unwilling to commit to the level of integration involved with EEC membership – and four countries (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein) have since secured dozens of free trade agreements cutting tariff barriers across the globe with Canada, the Gulf States, Mexico, across southern Africa and many more besides. Rather than simply aim for new free trade agreements from scratch, rejoining Efta could fast-track UK access to this wide suite of deals and go some way to making up ground we will undoubtedly lose from exiting the EU.

Efta’s rules and decision-making process fit more comfortably with the nature of the British economy and political opinion, a looser set of ties between countries that are more closely aligned. But crucially, rejoining Efta would send a strong signal across the world that Britain is up for engagement, keen to still make alliances and share decisions with other nation states. We mustn’t let this become the era of “Little England” pulling up the drawbridge, but instead a time when Britain stands up and champions new relationships and friendships.

The prime minister has a great opportunity to embrace Efta membership for the UK right now – and today’s report from the cross-party international trade select committee of which I am a part offers recommendations that the government should accept. The report, which has a majority of Conservative MPs, points out that rejoining Efta would offer an opportunity for a smoother transitions as the UK exists the EU in 2019. The lighter touch dispute arbitration system would offer more flexibility than the European court of justice. And while the UK government should try its hardest to “grandfather” existing EU trade deals into bilateral treaties with Britain, associating ourselves with the group of trade deals already under Efta’s belt would be a far more efficient way or regaining vital ground.

That’s why the select committee is recommending the government publish a white paper on Efta membership before this summer, so that negotiations can commence before the end of the year.

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And the committee goes further still, emphasising that “no deal” with the EU after these two years of talks is, in effect, a deal to trade with the EU under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Because the prime minister has said she wants to have tariff-free, frictionless trade and customs, the select committee concludes that WTO rules would not permit such arrangements and that therefore “the ‘no deal’ option should be discounted entirely”. And for those of us who still want to leave the door open for membership of the European Economic Area single market, Efta is a potential springboard to renewed involvement, as Norway and Iceland have discovered.

There is an alternative to hard Brexit isolationism, and Labour MPs have been working constructively across the parties in parliament to find common ground where we can get back into the business of European engagement. Practical alliance building with countries sharing similar economies and values remains a vision worth fighting for. Our job now must be to overcome this period of long-term uncertainty and begin to provide tangible alternatives in the post Brexit era.