From divorce bill to our borders: What’s in deal
MAY’S FIGHT
EIGHTEEN months after the talks began, both sides finally agreed a Brexit withdrawal agreement this week, which was shown to Cabinet ministers on Tuesday night. After the final text was published last night, JACK DOYLE examines what it says – and what it means.
NORTHERN IRELAND BACKSTOP
The issue that came to dominate the talks. In December, both sides agreed there would be ‘no hard border’ – meaning cameras and checks – between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit, to preserve the peace process and protect the Good Friday Agreement.
For nearly a year, negotiators struggled to find a ‘backstop’ solution acceptable to both sides that would kick in if future trade talks failed. Theresa May successfully killed off an EU demand for a Northern Ireland only backstop, and the EU eventually accepted a ‘temporary’ agreement for the whole of the UK to stay in a customs union. But for how long?
DUP fears that the province will still be treated differently from the rest of the UK appear well founded. The document says Northern Ireland would align with all single market rules so goods can circulate freely within the EU – but with no influence over them.
This will also mean more checks on live animals and other produce crossing the Irish Sea. Checks would be carried out by UK officials and mostly at source but some will take place at port – a red rag to the DUP. Northern Ireland will also have to follow EU VAT rules on goods.
REGULATIONS
The price the UK has paid for this customs backstop is to agree to swathes of EU rules designed to ensure a ‘level playing field’ and contained within a ‘large annexe’ to the agreement. Mrs May has said she wants the UK to follow a ‘common rulebook’ for goods and farm products in the trade deal.
But the agreement is expected to cover many others including state aid rules – subsidises for industry – workers’ rights, competition policy, environmental rules and tax, which Brexiteers, and some Remainers, warn means following Brussels regulations that we cannot influence.
EXIT CLAUSE
Mrs May has won her bid for an independent panel – a ‘joint consultative working group’ – to decide on when the customs union backstop can end, to stop the UK being ‘trapped’. Under Article 20 of the Protocol, the UK would notify the EU if it believes the backstop is no longer needed.
Within six months, the panel would decide if the EU was not acting in good faith over a solution to the Irish border problem. Designed to ensure the EU could not unreasonably block the UK from leaving the backstop, it is still well short of the unilateral break clause many Cabinet ministers wanted.
The panel will be made up of two representatives from each side plus an independent person – likely to be judges. Attorney General Geoffrey Cox – who proposed the solution – reportedly suggested the solution is not legally watertight. However, senior government officials insisted there have been major changes to the text to ensure the backstop is temporary.
DIVORCE BILL
The UK will pay around £39billion, but payments will become due over time – such as pension payments for EU officials. Half the cash pays for a ‘transition’ period between now and the end of 2020, when very little will change and the UK will stay within EU rules and institutions. Designed to avoid a Brexit ‘cliff edge’, this period will allow negotiations to resume on the future.
Calls from Cabinet Brexiteers for the cash to be linked to the future deal appear to have failed. For the first time, the UK has accepted the transition period may have to be extended – but only once – before we move to the future relationship.
The final deal will set a maximum date – as yet unspecified – beyond which it must end. Currently the date reads 20XX in the document. A mechanism has also been agreed to calculate future payments beyond 2021.
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND CITIZENS’ RIGHTS
Ending freedom of movement was a key demand for many who voted Leave, and will happen at the end of transition. Future immigration rules were not included in negotiations, so the UK has flexibility to set its own after that point, although the EU will push for preferential treatment in return for a better trade deal.
The existing rights of the three million EU citizens living in the UK and the one million Britons living in Europe have been guaranteed.
FISHING
The deal on fishing is a win for Mrs May and will allow the UK to independently negotiate access to its waters and quota shares.
Member states such as France and the Netherlands whose fishermen access UK waters demanded continued access.
Instead, fishing terms will be negotiated separately during the transition. The EU will call for continued access in return for giving the UK market access to sell its fish products, where the British industry exports around 75 per cent of its haul.
Thirteen Scottish Tory MPs including Scottish Secretary David Mundell said yesterday they
TRADE
could not support a deal that ‘would prevent the UK from independently negotiating access and quota shares’. No agreement has been made on import tariffs, meaning the EU could hit UK fishermen with charges for selling on to the continent. The deal is expected to contain only a brief ‘political declaration’ on future trade arrangements running to around five pages and which is not legally binding.
Ministers hope this will be beefed up in the coming days before MPs are asked to vote on the deal next month.
Both sides have agreed that there will be zero tariffs and quotas on trade between both sides, which No 10 says is a victory. One senior official said the UK would be ‘the only major advanced economy’ with that relationship with the EU.
On security, an agreement has been reached to share number plate information, fingerprints and DNA records but not the data on wanted criminals.