The UK Government has made more material and guidance available regarding its hopes for when it comes to trade between Britain and the EU post Brexit, scheduled for March 2019. And the resulting reaction isn’t particularly positive.
It’s called: Continuity in the availability of goods for the EU and the UK – a position paper.
As they say of the document and its aims: This paper outlines the UK’s position on continuity in the availability of goods in UK and EU markets at the point of EU exit. It is in the interests of both the UK and the EU to ensure a smooth and orderly withdrawal in regard to the availability of goods in the UK and EU markets.
We recognise that investors, businesses and citizens in the UK and across the EU want to be able to plan ahead with certainty, and this paper sets out our desire to provide legal certainty and avoid disruption for business and consumers.” This isn’t an unfair assessment but also doesn’t really appreciate the UK’s self-inflicted position.
And a key voice in dissent is Leo Varadkar the Prime Minister of Ireland, or Taoiseach. Don’t forget: Ireland is the the UK’s number one trading partner and the UK’s only land border. The Taoiseach has expressed his view and incredulity on the paper and the general approach and says:
“Where we’re confused and puzzled is on what trade agreement the United Kingdom wants with the European Union. At the moment they have the best trade deal possible – the best one imaginable – which is a customs union and access to the European Single Market and the European Economic Area.
What they seem to have been suggesting for the last 14 months is that they want to have all the advantages of being in the EU but none of the responsibilities and costs. That’s not a realistic position, so we’re waiting to see what they would like to see.”
What sort of Brexit deal would you like to see? Free movement of goods within the EU is a fairly vital right and service that will be useful moving forward for exporting UK firms of any hue. It does, after all, enable frictionless trade within the bloc. Are you worried about the future of your cross border trade?
5 Responses
I get the impression that the Government doesn’t really know what it wants. There doesn’t seem to be any clear defined path that the UK is going to take. Which is nice when Brexit is due to happen in 19 months.
In David Davis, we’ve sent possibly the dumbest MP in Parliament to negotiate away our future. There are no encouraging signs whatsoever in the Brexit process. The government keeps coming out with bullish “up yours, EU” statements for the benefit of the Daily Mail / Sun-reading knuckle-draggers, and then wonders why the other 27 countries don’t receive our proposals more warmly. This will not end well for anyone trading regularly with Europe.
Only a second referendum and a complete turnaround of the UK’s Brexit position is going to provide a reasonable long term solution. The lack of direction from the very top, indeed the fact that we have an utterly incompetent lame duck PM, means there can be no clarity of vision until she is gone. It seems the Labour party offer the best solution as they at least have a vision and a high level of support; but what their position will be on Europe and Brexit, if there is to be an election, who knows. They seem to say they support the referendum but given the fact that this was won on the basis of a flood of falsehoods, down right lies and exaggeration must surely bring it into question. With the current team negotiating our departure from Europe with its extreme right wing, pro US, bias there seems that little good will come of it; especially of the Transatlantic Trade Agreement is permitted to succeed, which will be the very worst of all worlds.
Negotiations. It’s just a game of chicken. Don’t be surprised that no one is blinking yet. Nothing will be sorted until the last minute.
Complete shamble and joke from the Tory party, who are supposed to be “champion free trade and business”, every day it just more depressing as it becomes a bigger and bigger mess. Sold on a bunch of lies, which is unraveling and becoming clearer by the day.