The EU and the United Kingdom have until the end of the year to seal an agreement.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will outline tough terms for post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union, saying in a speech on Monday that “Britain will prosper” regardless of the outcome.
“There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment, or anything similar,” Johnson will say in his speech, according to excerpts released by his office on Sunday, just days after the UK left the now 27-member bloc.
He is also expected to say that if the European Union does not accept an agreement similar to the EU’s arrangement with Canada, then trade with the EU will have to be based on the UK’s existing withdrawal agreement with the bloc, which would be “more like Australia’s.”
File Photo: Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a news conference at the European Union leaders summit dominated by Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium October 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Toby Melville
After officially leaving the EU on January 31, the UK now has 11 months to strike a trade deal with the EU bloc or face resorting to WTO trading rules. UK trade talks will begin with the EU in March.
The EU has repeatedly warned Britain that the level of access to its single market of 450 million people will depend on how far London agrees to adhere to such rules.
A pro-Brexit supporter holds a placard at Parliament Square on Brexit day, in London, Britain January 31, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Toby Melville
What are Canada’s and Australia’s EU trade arrangements?
Canada’s trade arrangement with the EU, CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), saw tariffs removed on around 98% of goods traded between the EU and Canada, making it much cheaper to sell each other’s goods in the other jurisdiction. It also sees “cooperation” on standards, limiting the need for safety and quality checks.
Currently, Australia-EU trade runs along with basic World Trade Organization rules, although there are specific agreements for certain goods. Australia is currently negotiating a trade deal with the European bloc.
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Personality politics is obscuring the information that voters need to make their decision on the ‘Brexit’ on June 23.
Personality politics is obscuring the information that voters need to make their decision on the ‘Brexit’ on June 23.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron joins students at the launch of the ‘Brighter Future In’ campaign bus at Exeter University in Exeter, Britain April 7, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Dan Kitwood/Pool
The campaign for the forthcoming referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU is now in full swing. Alongside the furious fact-slinging, voters have already witnessed moments of personal invective, with partisans on both sides considering that the end justifies the means.
But the best, often rarer feature, of referendums is the ability to expand public knowledge and bring new groups or issues into the public sphere. There were great hopes that politics could benefit from putting Europe into the heart of the national conversation. Even London’s former mayor Boris Johnson, speaking in 2014, argued that a referendum would allow Britons to focus not on “the feud – so toxic, so delicious, so gloriously fratricidal – but on what is actually right for the country.”
The referendum campaign itself has hardly captured the imagination – one poll showed that 29% of Britons don’t even know which side the UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage is on.
A defining feature of this referendum is the near-daily skirmishes over which side’s estimates about jobs or growth are accurate. In March, the bone of contention was the Treasury’s report on Brexit, which as commentators pointed out used a figure of costs per household not per capita, making for a bigger and scarier figure.
Yet one lesson from the initial period of campaigning is that the dominant focus rests on personalities and public spats, typified by the outbursts of Johnson.
One of the big beasts. Credit: The Conversation/Nigel Roddis/EPA
In reality, it was probably naive to think that the campaign could avoid becoming personal. The cabinet was always likely to be split: it was merely a question of who and how many would rebel against the prime minister’s renegotiation. By taking personal charge of the negotiations with the EU, David Cameron became the lightning rod for eurosceptic dissatisfaction.
There is also an inevitable contradiction between Cameron’s flirtation with hard euroscepticism prior to renegotiation and his transformation into a passionate EU supporter following the deal reached in February 2016. The anti-Cameron momentum within the Brexit camp is further fuelled by the ambivalence of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Unlike the 1975 referendum on remaining in the European Economic Community, today it is not the case that both main parties have leaders equally committed to remaining.
There is a very real danger that the referendum is not enhancing citizens’ understanding of the costs and constraints of EU membership. This is not just because of the ideologically biased interpretations doing the rounds. There is also a lazy, elite attitude of disdaining opposition to the EU, as if criticisms of it are only the product of wilful ignorance. Symptomatic of this attitude is the resort to expressions such as “wanting an outward-facing Britain” by the remain camp, implying they have a monopoly on defining internationalism.
In the final weeks of the campaign, politicians will no doubt ratchet up the rhetoric, lapped up by the media to help fuel their narrative of personal rivalry and party splits. So it is essential that there be a counterbalance – a shift in the debate from a deluge of facts and forecasts to one that picks apart the guiding principles of European integration.
But countering misinformation only goes so far. If this referendum is to have a positive legacy, campaigners on both sides need to help voters understand the linkages and trade-offs inherent in allowing the UK to trade globally or regulate migration. Whether inside or outside the EU, all voters can benefit from knowing more about how international politics works in the 21st century.
