More Roadblocks to Trade Deal with EU!

by Louise Mclean

At the conclusion of this last week of talks, David Frost issued a statement yesterday which reveals that the EU is still very much at odds with the UK's stance on a trade deal.

The UK has threatened to make public all the threats of the EU during the ongoing negotiations.

After the third negotiating round this year, both sides were downbeat about any progress being achieved and David Frost says that Britain will be publishing all its draft legal texts, so that EU member states and others can read them.

David Frost says the major obstacle is the EU's ideological insistence on creating 'novel and unbalanced proposals' for standards to comply with the EU's 'level playing field'.  David Frost said:  "The major obstacle is the EU's insistence on including a set of novel and unbalanced proposals on the so-called 'level playing field', which would bind this country to EU law or standards, or determine our domestic legal regimes, in a way that is unprecedented in Free Trade Agreements and not envisaged in the Political Declaration". 

The Bloc has demanded that Britain is tied to EU regulation on trade, fisheries, aviation, energy and that the European Court of Justice should oversee legal standards.  This includes products, e.g. pharmaceutical, entering the EU market from Britain.  It also includes tying Britain to EU state aid rules.

In addition, Mr. Frost said that the EU continues to insist on fisheries arrangements and access to UK fishing waters that is incompatible with our future status as an independent coastal state and which would be against the interests of the UK fishing industry. 

Michel Barnier still demands that the UK cannot have the 'best of both worlds', but all Britain wants is a similar Comprehensive Free Trade Deal to the ones the EU completed with Canada and Japan, which never included regulatory alignment!

Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen has threatened that the EU will sue Britain for not complying with EU freedom of movement rules.  A statement by the European Commission reads: 'UK national legislation limits the scope of beneficiaries of EU free movement law in the UK, as well as the possibilities for EU citizens and their family members to appeal administrative decisions restricting free movement rights'.

On our side, Michael Gove has been extremely concerned about the rights of Brits living in the EU.  He says that legislation protects European citizens in the UK but no such legislation appears to protect our UK citizens.

Gove says there is widespread disregard for the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement which says people should be allowed to remain in either the UK or EU after the transition but Britons applying for settled status to stay in Spain, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus, Austria and the Czech Republic have had problems.

UK citizens have sent alarming claims to the Government about their concerns regarding the application process,  In a letter to EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, Mr. Gove sets out a four point complaint, saying 'we take our Withdrawal Agreement obligations on citizens' rights very seriously'.

The UK has made available grants of £9 million to 57 community organisation to support vulnerable EU citizens but in contrast member states have not yet shared similar information and in some cases there seems to be none.

The next round of talks is due to begin on 1st June, whereupon a decision must be made by 30th June as to whether the transition period should be extended for a further two years past the end of December this year.  Boris Johnson has so far totally ruled out any extension.

As far as the Writer is concerned, it looks like the EU are trying to come up with every possible roadblock to prevent Britain untying itself from its shackles by 31st December 2020 and we should just leave on WTO terms as soon as possible.  I predict that the EU will make a trade deal impossible with its demands.

Boris Stands Firm Against the EU for Trade Deal

by Louise Mclean

In response to the EU's negotiating mandate which was revealed on Tuesday, Boris Johnson's government has today produced its own 30 page mandate, setting out its red lines, which are clearly at loggerheads with the EU.

Today Michael Gove made a statement in Parliament saying that at the end of the transition we will fully recover our economic and political independence.  'We want the best trading relationship with the EU but we will not trade away our sovereignty'.  You can watch the statement here.

Yesterday Boris announced that he would not be bound by the Political Declaration, which he believes is not legally binding and says that his own Conservative manifesto supersedes it.  He wants to go back on previous agreements in the PD on fishing rights, borders and state aid rules and he has refused to create infrastructure for a border for goods coming in from Northern Ireland. All this sets him on a collision course with Michel Barnier who says the Political Declaration must be 'followed to the letter'.

So the Prime Minister has quietly dropped some of the elements of the Political Declaration and the EU has done the same on financial services and personal data, which were to be settled by June 2020 and December 2020 respectively.   

The EU has also altered its stance since the signing of the Political Declaration, as there had been only one paragraph dealing with 'a level playing field' or regulatory alignment but there are now 20 in its mandate!  

The UK government says that a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement should be 'at the core' of a trade deal, on the lines of those already signed by the EU with Canada and other countries.  This should include other agreements covering fisheries, law enforcement and judicial cooperation on crime, transport and energy but with no role for the European Court of Justice.  Britain is determined to take back control of its borders, laws and money.  

Both sides are in agreement regarding signing up to a zero tariff trade deal but Michel Barnier says that checks must be made for goods coming into the EU from Britain, as they cannot accept goods that are coming from all over the world.  

The EU might later use financial services and other services with member states as a political football, which it has recently threatened to do.    

Knowing how much the EU fear a No Deal, the UK has told Barnier that a trade deal must be agreed by the end of June and finalised by the end of September, or No Deal will be back on the table and Britain will start preparing to leave the transition at the end of the year by trading with the EU under World Trade Organisation rules.

The government has warned in that case trading at the border from January 2021 might not be frictionless and new infrastructure will have to go up in ports to deal with this.  

Boris has also clearly stated that he will not extend the transition period under any circumstances.

Formal talks for a trade deal between the EU and Britain commence next Monday 2nd March. 

Boris Johnson's government is taking a completely different stance from Theresa May's, which seemingly agreed everything that was presented to them. Now the EU must wake up to the fact that they are dealing with a completely different entity that hopefully won't back down!