Barnier stands firm: Accept FTA or face no deal | City A.M.
The European Commission is standing firm over its Brexit position, telling the UK today it must accept an off-the-shelf free trade agreement or acknowledge there will be no deal.
Chief negotiator Michel Barnier today stressed that despite the UK planning to leave the Single Market, Theresa May’s Chequers proposals “would undermine our Single Market which is one of the EU’s biggest achievements”.
He said: “The UK wants to keep free movement of goods between us, but not of people and services. And it proposes to apply EU customs rules without being part of the EU’s legal order. Thus, the UK wants to take back sovereignty and control of its own laws, which we respect, but it cannot ask the EU to lose control of its borders and laws.”
Instead Barnier restated the Commission’s offer, made in March of this year by European Council President Donald Tusk.
“The EU has offered a Free Trade Agreement with zero tariffs and no quantitative restrictions for goods,” Barnier said. “It proposed close customs and regulatory cooperation and access to public procurement markets, to name but a few examples.”
Although the arrangement does not reference services explicitly, many including former Brexit secretary David Davis have said they are confident a final deal – which has been dubbed Canada plus-plus-plus, would include this massive component of the UK economy.