Slam on the Brex
Trade talks delayed & UK banned from new deals until 2021
THERESA May suffered a twin setback yesterday as Brussels stalled on Brexit trade talks and banned her from signing deals with other nations until 2021.
The Prime Minister finally got the green light to begin negotiations over a trade deal between the UK and the EU but was then told they’d not start until March.
Then the leaders of the other 27 EU nations slipped out a ban on the UK signing deals with other countries until the end of a transition period in March 2021.
May tried to hail yesterday as an “important step” on the road to Brexit. But Germany’s Angela Merkel warned it would get “tougher” and Austrian PM Christian Kern predicted a “rocky road”.
Meanwhile, a document was published yesterday by the European Commission, laying out tough rules for Britain during the transition.
Guidelines produced by the EU demand the UK keeps all EU law during the interim period – including freedom of movement and rulings from the EU court.
Nigel Farage said: “This is a much worse form of membership. Any pretence we’re leaving the EU on March 29, 2019, evaporates with this document.”
The ex-UKIP leader also tweeted: “If the trade talks don’t start until March, why did May leave Downing Street so early last Friday? We’ve been taken for mugs.”
Senior Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU demands went far beyond an implementation period and were effectively continued membership.
He said: “As usual, the EU have set out a hard nosed negotiating stance. We must be equally robust.”
The delay on trade talks is a blow to the PM, who wanted them to begin “straight away”.
The EU27 also confirmed that a final trade deal can’t be signed until the UK has formally left.
The document set out the process for agreeing the terms of a transition period expected to last two years after the date of Brexit.
It made clear the EU expect the UK to observe all of their rules – including on freedom of movement – and accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
The development is likely to land May back in hot water with Tory Brexiteers.
May said yesterday that the move to the second phase of talks represented “an important step on the road to delivering the smooth and orderly Brexit that people voted for in June of last year”. She said Britain would be “beginning the talks about our relationship straight away”.