Davis hits out at EU over ‘unwise’ plan
POLITICS: Brexit Secretary David Davis has criticised the “discourteous” European Union for publishing plans that would allow it to sanction the UK during a transition period, saying the documents were “unwise”.
BREXIT SECRETARY David Davis has criticised the “discourteous” European Union for publishing plans that would allow it to sanction the UK during a transition period.
Turning up the heat as a week of technical negotiations on the transition came to a close, Mr Davis said he regarded the Brussels documents as “political” and “unwise”.
His comments came after Theresa May’s Brexit inner “war cabinet” met over two days to consider the next stages of the process.
Today, the senior officials involved in the Brexit talks will meet in Brussels, where the EU expects key Brexit adviser Olly Robbins to provide an update on the UK’s plans.
But in a sign that the atmosphere had soured, Mr Davis accused the EU of not acting “in good faith” over the proposed transition deal to cover a period of about two years after the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019.
The EU has released a position paper showing it wants to put in place a method to rapidly curtail the UK’s single market benefits if it breaches the terms of a transition deal.
Mr Davis said: “I do not think it was in good faith to publish a document with frankly discourteous language and actually implying that they could arbitrarily terminate in effect the implementation period.
“That’s not what the aim of this exercise is, it’s not in good faith, and we think it was unwise to publish that.”
Under the plans released by the European Commission, Brussels wants to be able to “suspend certain benefits” of the internal market for the UK without going through the lengthy European Court of Justice (ECJ) legal process.
Meanwhile, Japanese investors – including representatives from car giants Nissan, Honda and Toyota – gathered for a meeting at Downing Street made clear that they expected access to the single market to continue after Brexit.
Japan’s ambassador to the UK Koji Tsuruoka said there were “high stakes” and firms would not be able to continue operating unless they could remain profitable. “If there is no profitability of continuing operations in the UK, not Japanese only, but no private company can continue operation so it is as simple as that,” he said. “This is all high stakes and I think all of us need to keep in mind.”
He added that companies, in particular the major manufacturers, “expected” free access to the European market and Japan had also lobbied Brussels on the importance of “healthy, sound” trade relations.
Official estimates obtained on Wednesday by Sky News of the potential impact of non-tariff barriers – such as extra red tape, customs checks and rules-of-origin regulations – on various economic sectors, suggested the motor industry faced cost increases of between five per cent and 13 per cent.
Mrs May told the gathering that Brexit was “no small undertaking” but presents an opportunity to “strike free trade deals around the world and build on our already strong relationship with Japan”.