Brexit trade deal sans services would not be fair: Hammond
london — British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday that a Brexit trade deal that excludes the financial services industry would not be “fair”, despite the EU already rejecting the idea.
Hammond, making a key speech in the Canary Wharf finance hub, urged Brussels to seek a bespoke free trade agreement for Britain, adding it would be in their “mutual interest” to include the sector.
“A trade deal will only happen if it’s fair and balances the interest of both sides,” Hammond said, hours after the EU had rejected Britain’s calls for completely free trade following Brexit. “Now, given the shape of the British economy and our trade balance with the EU 27, it’s hard to see how any deal that did not include services could look like a fair and balanced settlement.
“Not only this is possible to include financial services in a trade deal but this is very much in our mutual interest to do so.”
He spoke shortly after the European Union rejected such a move, not for the first time, by again declaring that there would be “no cherry-picking” for London.
Draft negotiating guidelines released on Wednesday by EU President Donald Tusk rebuffed British Prime Minister Theresa May’s recent call, made late last week, for a wide-ranging free trade agreement.
Questioned about the guidelines, which also warned of “negative economic consequences” as a result of Britain’s vote to leave, Hammond replied: “It does not surprise me remotely that what they have set out this morning is a very tough position. That’s what any competent, skilled and experienced negotiator would do.”
The finance minister, meanwhile, urged Brussels to seek a “unique” trade agreement for Britain. “It is time to address the sceptics who say a trade deal including financial services cannot be done because it has never been done before. “To them I say: every trade deal the EU has ever done has been unique. The EU has never negotiated the same arrangement twice. It has bespoke relationships with Turkey, Canada, Singapore (and) South Korea.”
Hammond outlined how British and EU markets are “already deeply interconnected” and their regulatory frameworks “identical”. A bespoke British free trade deal would meanwhile follow the Canada-EU CETA agreement and the proposed US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), he added. —