PM will show Britain isn’t a joke nation
As Mrs May heads to the European Council, I’m comforted that she will set out the facts to Brussels
Throughout the long and drawnout process of leaving the EU, the most baffling thing has been how some seem to regard the pronouncements of that wondrous body, the European Commission. For lo, these are holy writ.
When the Commission says something, it is deemed to be infallible, its opinions inevitable and, most intriguingly of all, its approach entirely disinterested. This detached, Olympian body never “pushes a line”, it simply hands down great thunderbolts of truth.
In the run-up to the European Council Theresa May attends this week, it is time for the genuine truth and real facts to be faced up to. These are as the Prime Minister insists they are, not as the Commission and its cheerleaders here invent.
We have sought sincerely to cooperate with the Commission. Indeed, we have already made startling concessions to be seen to be doing just that.
Yet all that Brussels does is bank those, ignore its own proclaimed “values” and sacred legal order, and await the next concession that British opponents of Brexit insist we must make to the EU. Rhyme and reason do not apply, but ultimately facts will out and here are some of the facts the Prime Minister will insist upon in Brussels this week.
The United Kingdom will not accept being a subservient state. In the case of tariffs, once we have left the EU, it is non-negotiable that our trade minister should be able to respond to any threat of increased tariffs from other nations as suits our national interest, not the EU’S.
We must be able to negotiate and sign trade deals. Yet this does not depend just on our legal ability to do so. It depends on how other countries view us. If they think that we are bound by the EU’S “duty of sincere cooperation” or its common commercial policy, then they will rightly not take us seriously. The critical aspects of trade negotiations happen at the end when deals are done. We will not get there if other states see we cannot cut deals.
In the words of one country’s frustrated trade negotiator, Britain has to decide if it is a serious country or a joke nation. It would be humiliating for others to have cause to think thus of us.
Agricultural import quotas are another key thing we have to be able to negotiate bilaterally and not through the EU. We must be able to look other countries in the eye and say that we can offer more liberalisation in the future and the future is soon. We simply cannot do this arm in arm with the EU. We certainly would not succeed if we allowed the EU to negotiate on “our” behalf.
The EU is no longer regarded as a positive force for liberalisation in the World Trade Organisation. Rather, it is seen as slow and uncreative, often blocking rather than spurring progress. It is in breach of existing WTO law in the agricultural area and no nation believes it can or will do anything fast. Liberated, we will be agile and that will be our advantage. We must not throw that fundamental Brexit bonus away.
These are the facts the PM will be dealing in with the Commission this week but there are domestic truths too. If we do not free ourselves from the grip of Brussels, we would walk towards the next general election as a vassal state. What would the public make of this?
Our good and true friend Alexander Downer, the Australian High Commissioner, observed that the UK could of course do whatever we wanted to in terms of how we leave the EU and what “implementation” deals we sign up to, but that Australia would never allow another country to dictate her laws and regulations. This is the least Brexit means.
The EU is of a piece with the other failures which came so close to wrecking the British economy after the war, be they ideas of similar vintage like nationalisation or state socialism. It is a great comfort for me that we, as a party and government, will go into the next election having been successfully taken out of the EU by Theresa May. Brexit will mean Brexit and Brexit shall be done.
The alternative is defeat and vassalage.
Jacob Rees-mogg MP is chairman of the European Research Group