Barnier warns Britain ‘time to choose future’
EU CHIEF negotiator Michel Barnier warned on Monday that Britain faced “unavoidable” trade barriers after Brexit if it also quit the bloc’s single market and customs union, urging Prime Minister Theresa May to make her choice.
After talks with May and Brexit Minister David Davis, Barnier repeated that the EU needed “clarity” on what they wanted from the future relationship.
“Without customs union and outside the single market, barriers to trade in goods and services are unavoidable,” he said. “Time has come to make a choice.”
During a visit later to the European Banking Authority, which will relocate to Paris after Brexit, Barnier repeated his warning that financial services would be impacted.
“When the UK leaves the single market, the financial passport is gone,” he tweeted, referring to the rights that allow London banks to offer services across the bloc.
May says Britain will leave the EU’s single market and its customs union after Brexit, to ensure it takes back con- trol of its laws and is free to strike new trade deals. But critics warn her move will hit the British economy, and the subject is the cause of intense debate between pro-European and pro-Brexit factions in parliament.
As both sides up the pressure on the prime minister, senior ministers will hold two days of talks today and Thursday to try to thrash out a plan.
Brexit negotiations were to resume in Brussels yesterday on a two-year transition period after Britain’s withdrawal in March 2019, followed by the start of trade talks in April.
Barnier said he expected an official position from London on the future relationship “in the next few weeks”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said: “We have said that we want the customs arrangement to be as frictionless as possible and that’s what we will be looking to achieve as part of the deep and special partnership we are seeking with the EU.
“We think we can achieve that because it’s in the interests of the UK and the European Union. As with all these matters, it’s the beginning of a negotiation.”