DAVIS AIMING TO JUMP-START EXIT
DAVID Davis will travel to Paris tomorrow for Brexit talks, days after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested Britain would need to up its divorce payment offer to unlock trade negotiations.
The Brexit Secretary will have dinner with French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in the UK’s latest attempt to jump-start withdrawal talks with the European Union.
It comes as a former World Trade Organisation (WTO) deputy director general warned that a “no-deal” Brexit would be a big step down and would hit Britain harder than the European Union.
Roderick Abbott said the tariffs that would be imposed on trade if there was no exit agreement would favour the EU as it does a larger share of its business with the rest of the world, whereas nearly half of Britain’s international trade is with the union.
France is seen to be taking one of the EU’s most hardline views on the exit bill.
Mr Macron said that earlier indications the UK could offer around €20bn (£18bn) to ensure its EU partners were not left out of pocket due to Brexit did not go halfway to what was required.
A Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) source confirmed Mr Davis’ plans, which will be seen as a fresh attempt to unblock negotiations, took a small step forward at the Council summit.
An agreement to begin scoping work on trade may reassure City firms which had suggested they might have to move functions and staff to the continent if no progress was made by Christmas.
But it was accompanied by clear demands from EU leaders for Britain to make more concessions on the divorce bill so they can green light trade negotiations at the next Council summit in mid-December.
In a sign of the likely internal Tory battles ahead, senior Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin has warned the Prime Minister she should not sign up to a deal at any price, while pro-EU colleague Anna Soubry said it would be better to halt Britain’s exit entirely than leave with no agreement.
Meanwhile, former head of the Civil Service, Lord O’Donnell, warned that banks would leave the UK if there was no deal.
He said Catalonia’s current bid for separation from Spain provided an example of what will happen.
Banks and other firms have already confirmed their intentions to move their headquarters out of the region amid a stand-off with the Spanish government.
Lord O’Donnell said: “They are voting on independence and you can see companies moving their headquarters out, banks moving away from Catalonia, because if they were to go independent they would leave the EU with no deal and most of their trade is obviously with the rest of Spain. That will be in doubt.”