Hopes of wide-ranging Brexit deal ‘unrealistic’
UK MOVES to flout international law on Brexit were mainly “a negotiating tactic” in ongoing trade talks, Simon Coveney has said.
Mr Coveney said he believed the British tactical move had “backfired to a large extent” – and he insisted the interests of Brussels negotiators and the Irish government were on talks seeking a trade deal before the UK quits the EU on December 31 next.
“We will continue to focus on the real prize here which is to get a deal,” the Foreign Affairs Minister told the Oireachtas EU affairs committee.
He said ambitions of forging a wide-ranging EU-UK partnership, outlined in the Political Declaration which accompanied last year’s Withdrawal Agreement, were no longer realistic.
“It is quite clear we are not going to get a permanent and comprehensive agreement on a future relationship,” he said. The aim now was for a realistic EU-UK trade deal which would avoid tariffs and quotas.
The minister said the “level playing field” – which implies no UK undercutting on environment, labour standards or state aids to business – had become “toxic” in UK political circles.
He said EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was right not
to move the negotiations into the next so-called “tunnel” phase.
This was because there must first be agreement on a workable mechanism to resolve future EU-UK disputes.
On the dispute over EU fishing boats’ future access to UK waters – an issue of key Irish interest – he said there had been hopes of a deal before the end of this past summer.
Now any deal on the issue still faced big problems.
Mr Coveney again said there was no justification for the UK’s Internal Market Bill which changes Northern Ireland’s future trade status after Brexit.
He predicted the legislation will get “a rough ride” in the UK House of Lords where there were many legal experts to challenge its legality in international law and also possibly delay the measure.
The minister said the measure had harmed the UK’s international reputation. But he said the appearance of similar measures in the UK’s upcoming finance bill will tell a lot about London’s sincerity when it comes to cutting a trade deal with the EU at all.
“If the finance bill is introduced with that provision in it, I think many in the EU will see it as an indication that the British government simply doesn’t want a deal,” Mr Coveney said.