An EU single market in all but name?

YOU have to go back to 1976 to find a long hot summer. However, maybe this year will be a recordbreaker regardless of the amount of sun, due to the heat that is emanating from the White Paper recently released on Brexit, detailing life for the UK post-Brexit.

A ‘Common Rule Book’ is the backbone of the Chequers Plan, which was formalised in the White Paper but at the cost of UK services, as the opening gambit for UK negotiation with the EU.

This stance must have been adopted due to the EU insisting that the UK would be having its cake and eating it, by putting forward “Mutual Recognition” for UK services which proposed two separate but comparable systems. However, there are only a few more months left to do a deal on UK services.

The UK’s economy derives 80% of its income from UK services; clearly the EU is aware of that. Is this the UK showing strength and turning its back on the EU in respect of a deal on UK services in return for a soft boarder in Northern Ireland post-Brexit?

However, this would mean less market access for UK services within the EU and inevitably fewer jobs and lower tax revenue.

Cynics may say that the UK is capitulating to EU demands. Instead, the UK is giving up on UK services in the hope that the EU will give up on freedom of movement of people and permit the UK to have freedom of movement of UK goods.

The problem with this gambit is that it has got to be agreed by the EU and has to be implemented post-Brexit. This proposal envisages that the UK will collect tariffs on behalf of the EU but it is unlikely that the EU will do the same for the UK.

It also means that the UK is signing up to the EU rules without a voice on how these rules are made, so is this a “single market” in everything but name?

In 1992, there was the famous phrase “It’s The Sun Wot Won It” referring to the Conservative win.

Following its interview with Donald Trump, who said that a UK trade deal with the US will be unlikely based on the White Paper because the US is dealing with the EU, will the Sun in this hot summer change a soft Brexit into a hard Brexit? Colin Rodrigues is head of the corporate team at Hawkins

Hatton