‘EU and Britain both need to reach trade deal’
A POST-BREXIT deal with the EU is likely to be reached due to the interests of both sides, a Cambridge professor has said.
Appearing in front of the Future Relationship with the European Union Committee in the Commons yesterday Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of European Union and Labour Law at the University of Cambridge, said any agreement was about more than just goods, with both sides having a desire to come to a compromise.
As it stands, Britain will leave the EU single market when the current Brexit transition period comes to an end at the end of the year with nothing to replace it unless a deal is agreed.
But Prof Barnard said: “I would say I think there will be a deal because ultimately there is so much interest on both sides in having some sort of deal because it’s not just about goods, it’s about services, it’s about law enforcement, there are really major issues which are of fundamental importance to both sides, that eventually it will be in both sides’ interests to come up with some arrangement.”
The UK Government has repeatedly insisted it will not move on demands by the EU over issues such as fishing, and would be prepared to walk away from the bloc without a deal.
Prof Barnard said: “My concern is if we really do leave with no deal at all, the atmosphere between the two sides will be pretty toxic for months, maybe years, ahead. Eventually we will get back to the negotiation table because geography matters and we do need to have some sort of arrangement because trading purely on WTO terms really is not good enough for an advanced economy like the UK.”
She said “virtually no Western state trades purely on WTO terms”, and pointed to Australia which has “facilitation arrangements” with the EU.
The latest round of negotiations failed to break the deadlock but talks are set to continue.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said there had been “no significant areas of progress” while his UK counterpart, David Frost, said they would have to “intensify and accelerate” the process if there was to be any chance of an agreement.