BRUSSELS IN BREXIT TRADE WAR THREAT
... as bloc warns: We’ll sue if UK goes back on Withdrawal Agreement
‘Raising the prospect of No Deal’ ‘Deterioration of negotiations’
BREXIT talks were on the brink of collapse last night after Brussels threatened to launch a trade war that could see British food exports banned from the EU.
In an incendiary statement yesterday, the European Commission said it would launch legal action against the UK unless it abandons controversial legislation overriding parts of the Withdrawal Agreement by the end of this month.
Brussels said the plans, included in the Internal Market Bill, put hopes of a trade deal ‘at risk’. And last night, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier hinted that a trade war could follow if there was no deal by the end of the year.
In a statement following talks with Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost, Mr Barnier said there were ‘many uncertainties’ about Britain’s food regime and warned that ‘more clarity’ would be needed before exports to the EU were allowed. Following a fractious meeting with Michael Gove in London, Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said Britain had ‘seriously damaged trust’ by seeking to override elements of the Irish backstop.
However, Mr Gove responded by saying the Government would not back down – plunging the future of the trade negotiamat tions into doubt, and raising the prospect of a No Deal exit at the end of the year. Asked about the EU’s ultimatum, Mr Gove told reporters: ‘I made it perfectly clear to vice president Sefcovic that we would not be withdrawing this legislation. He understood that. Of course he regretted it.’
Last night, the Government said it would fast-track the controversial legislation, with MPs set to vote on it next week.
It came as German ambassador to the UK Andreas Michaelis tweeted: ‘In more than 30 years as a diplomat I have not experienced such a fast, intentional and profound deterioration of a negotiation. If you believe in partnership between the UK and the EU like I do then don’t accept it.’
There is a growing Tory revolt against the Bill, with senior peers suggesting it would be blocked in the House of Lords. Former Conservative leader Lord Howard said the plan would damage the UK’s reputation on the world stage.
It has also been claimed that a behind-the-scenes rift exists between the Government’s top legal advisers over the legality of the move.
The row follows the Government’s decision to override parts of the Irish backstop agreed last year as part of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Downing Street has said the changes are designed to create a ‘safety net’ that would prevent the creation of a trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK if there is no trade deal with the EU by December.
Earlier this week, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis admitted that the changes would breach international law, but insisted they were justified.
In a statement that stunned MPs, he said the Internal Market Bill would ‘break international law in a very specific and limited way’.
Yesterday, Mr Sefcovic reacted furiously. In an emergency meeting in London, the Slovak diplo-measures told Mr Gove that the EU does not accept the legislation is needed to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland, saying Brussels was of the view that it ‘does the opposite’.
In a statement, the Commission said: ‘[Mr] Sefcovic called on the UK Government to withdraw these from the draft Bill in the shortest time possible and in any case by the end of the month. He stated that by putting forward this Bill, the UK has seriously damaged trust between the EU and the UK. It is now up to the UK Government to re-establish that trust.
‘He reminded the UK Government that the Withdrawal Agreement contains a number of mechanisms and legal remedies to address violations of the legal obligations contained in the text – which the European Union will not be shy in using.’
French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian pulled Dominic Raab to one side at a meeting in London on Iran yesterday to tell the British Foreign Secretary breaching the Withdrawal Agreement would be ‘unacceptable’.
But despite the bust-up, No10 last night said that planned trade talks in Brussels next week would still take place. And Attorney General Suella Braverman, who has faced calls to resign over the row, yesterday published a ‘legal position’ defending the move.
Mrs Braverman acknowledged it was an ‘established principle of international law that a state is obliged to discharge its treaty obligations in good faith’, adding: ‘This is, and will remain, the key principle in informing the UK’s approach to international relations.’ But she insisted Parliament had the right to override a treaty if it was in the national interest.
She added: ‘In the difficult and highly exceptional circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is important to remember the fundamental principle of Parliamentary sovereignty.’