BREXIT: A 120-PAGE ‘TREATY’ WITH MAJOR AREAS OF DISAGREEMENT
Chief negotiator acknowledges that a number of outstanding issues remain unresolved
The crescendo that accompanies the British drive to leave the European Union echoed around the continent yesterday as Brussels officials prepared to publish the draft treaty that will set the exit terms.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier acknowledged that several outstanding issues remained unresolved even as the 120-page document went to print, admitting there had been little real progress in fleshing out terms since December.
One key flashpoint is the length of the transition period between the British exit in March next year and the loss of its current access to the European economy. While Whitehall officials have demanded at least two full years, Mr Barnier wants it to end in 2020.
“It must be short, it must be clearly specified in time, and this is clearly the line that we are pursuing – and if there are no issues, so much the better. This is one of the points where we see an area of divergence with the UK,” he said.
In the absence of clear consensus on the future trade ties between Britain and the EU, Brussels has also set out three options that would preserve an open and free border in Ireland. However, the option C outlined has been criticised by Brexit supporting British politicians as an “intolerable interference”, because it would effectively require customs checks on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Within British politics, a stark divide has emerged over the future free-trade deal after the leader of the opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, threw his weight behind an alternative customs union with the EU. The government says a customs union would preclude wide-ranging free-trade pacts with economic partners around the world.
Martin Donnelly, a retired senior civil servant, who helped set up the Department of International Trade after the Brexit vote in 2016, said on Monday that Britain was abandoning more than it could gain from new deals.
“You’re giving up a threecourse meal, the depth and intensity of our trade relationship across the European Union and partners now, for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future, if we manage to do trade deals in the future outside the EU which aren’t going to compensate for what we’re giving up,” he said.
The Brexit-supporting International Development Secretary Liam Fox said that Mr Donnelly was stuck in the past and had failed to recognise the potential gains from structural changes in the world economy.
“It is unsurprising that those who have spent a lifetime working within the European Union would see moving away from the European Union as being threatening,” he said.
“The particular choice that I heard Martin Donnelly outline was a choice between the European Union and trade opportunities elsewhere.
“I don’t believe that is the choice we face. And, in any case, I think the UK Brexit process is, as we have all discovered, a little more complex than a packet of Walkers.”
But Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said the option of a customs union remained a potential outcome, comparing its status to Turkey’s arrangement with the EU.
“Let me just say that a customs union would be the Turkish solution,” Mr Macron said. “It’s a possible option. But it has constraints. Let’s be clear that it’s not full access to the single market. That’s the Norwegian solution, but that involves accepting the four freedoms and contributions to the budget. It’s very different to what exists between Turkey and the EU.”
There was also pressure from the devolved regional governments, with the Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon warning that Edinburgh would vote down parts of the deal if it lost powers in the shift away from Brussels.
“I will not sign up to something that effectively undermines the whole foundation on which devolution is built, and no first minister, no Scottish government worth its salt, should do so,” she said.
You’re giving up a three-course meal for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future MARTIN DONNELLY Retired civil servant