PHILIP Hammond became the first UK Cabinet minister to set foot on Argentinian soil in 16 years yesterday when he flew in on a trade mission.

The UK Government is attempting to create closer business ties with nations outside of the EU as Brexit looms and Hammond is the first cabinet minister to visit the country since 2001.

Previous missions have included a trip to the Gulf and Hammond said talks with Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri would focus on “how we can deepen the UK-Argentina economic partnership”.

Discussions are not expected to cover continued tensions over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina claims sovereignty over.

These tensions flared under Macri’s predecessor Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in 2015 while Hammond was Foreign Secretary, during which time he accused her of the “bullying and harassment” of islanders.

On the visit, the Treasury said: “The agenda is focused firmly on building economic ties and looking ahead to the G20.”

The mission came as a fresh domestic row breaks out over future Scotch whisky tariffs.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who will meet the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) on Islay today, said ministers aim to push the spirit, worth £5 billion a year, in new markets.

Export tariffs currently range from zero to more than 150 per cent and Westminster is now considering how future trade agreements with other nations could reduce these.

Mundell said: “We are determined to open up new markets around the world for the very best whisky our distillers have to offer and to drive down any tariffs they face.”

However, Scottish Brexit Minister Michael Russell called for reassurance over the implications of a possible trade deal with America, saying: “Our whisky industry needs urgent assurances that the UK Government will not sell them out in order to secure a wider trade deal with the US. The EU’s protection of the whisky industry will be undermined and the industry will suffer if the looser US definition is forced on Scotland.” International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said: “We should raise a glass to our exporting success and further help UK businesses make the most of an ever-growing demand for top-selling British products such as Scotch whisky as part of a global Britain.

“Reducing the costs for companies to sell overseas will become one way of further opening up free trade routes and boosting sales, and that’s why I’ve tasked my international economic department to look at how we can support more businesses to build their brands abroad.”

His department gave some insight into official plans for Brexit yesterday after a job advert emerged for a new organisation to deal with trade disputes.

Under the Department for International Trade, the new body will be operational by October 2018, in time for the formal date of Brexit in March the following year.

The advert, for a member of the “implementation team” setting up the UK Trade Remedies Organisation, says the legislation for the creation of body will be put before parliament following the summer recess, which ends next month.

The implementation team setting up the body will design the organisation and recruit around 130 staff.

But in a sign of the unpredictable nature of Brexit, the job advert – posted on the government’s civil service recruitment site – acknowledged the trade remedies implementation team “will be operating in a changing and uncertain environment” which could be shaped by the withdrawal negotiations taking place between the UK and Brussels.