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!

EU's Impossible Demands

by Louise Mclean

On 25th February the EU agreed its 46 page mandate with member states for negotiating a trade deal with Britain, with talks starting in Brussels on 2nd March.

One has to wonder where Michel Barnier has been these past six months, as it seems he has failed to notice the massive tug of war between the People and Parliament to get the Brexit we voted for in June 2016. As has been pointed out, we have left the EU and should now be treated as a third country, not as a member state.

His mandate has the effrontery to ask for all the things that we had rejected, almost as though Barnier was deaf or deficient in understanding, despite Boris Johnson and his chief negotiator, David Frost, making it clear that Britain wants to 'take back control'.

In exchange for a trade deal with the EU, demands are being made to continue following EU laws and directives, for European fisherman to have the same access to our fishing waters as before and for the European Court of Justice to oversee any legal disputes.

Brussels has recently stated that although it has agreed a Canada-style trade deal, we must align closely to EU rules because we are geographically closer than Canada.  For this you can read that Brussels is terrified of Britain becoming a serious competitor on their doorstep, which is precisely what will happen once we have totally broken free.

The mandate states that we can only have zero tariff trade with the EU, if there is regulatory alignment or a 'level playing field' and maintain current standards on climate change, tax and state aid.  Remaining aligned to EU rules would be as though we had not left the European Union and we would certainly not be taking back control of our laws! 

A new demand at the behest of France, says we must have the same standards for food production, as their fear is our foods might become competitively cheaper. This may prevent us from importing foods from America, which has different safety and processing standards from Europe. Unfortunately this could be problematic, as currently, according to the Daily Telegraph, 80% of our food exports go to European markets.

The EU is also concerned that Britain may not implement a Customs Border for Northern Ireland, which had been agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement.

It looks as though swords will be crossed in the forthcoming negotiations being held in Brussels and London alternately.  These issues must be overwhelming resolved before 1st July 2020, when a decision must be made about the possibility of extending the transition date at the end of the year, when we are fully out.  Let us hope that yet another extension does not happen and if the EU continues its dogmatic stance, we will just have to trade on WTO terms.

Boris Johnson is to present his own mandate to the EU tomorrow and let us hope he does not back down and agree any of these impossible demands.