Brexit: Minister says there is no point in an ’11th hour’ UK-EU trade deal
Cabinet Office minister Penny Mordaunt has told MPs that there is no point doing an “11th hour” Brexit trade deal and that the EU needs to speed up negotiations.
Mordaunt – who was stepping in for defacto Brexit minister Michael Gove in the House of Commons today – said that businesses needed enough time to prepare for the UK’s new relationship with the EU starting in January.
The fourth round of trade negotiations between the EU and UK ended on Friday, with both sides saying little progress had been made in key areas such as fishing access and business competition policy.
A source close to the UK chief negotiator David Frost said on Friday that Downing Street would make a decision before the end of summer on whether to push on with talks or to prepare for a no-deal exit from the transition period.
The UK’s transition period, which sees the country remain in the EU’s single market and customs union, ends on 31 December.
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Tariffs will be immediately implemented on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms if no deal is agreed upon by this deadline.
“There is no point in us arriving at an agreement at the 11th hour – we have to arrive at agreement to enable it to be implemented, ratified but also for our citizens and businesses to prepare,” Mordaunt said.
“That is what is dictating the timetable here and that is why we must have renewed focus.
“We’re talking to the EU about having a change of format, about how we can increase the pace of negotiations, get the focus where we need it to be, and get a deal done for both of our sakes.”
Frost said in a statement on Friday that there needed to be fundamental change in how the negotiating ronuds were carried out, after the last three were done over Zoom.
“We are close to reaching the limits of what we can achieve through the format of remote formal rounds,” Frost said.
“If we are to make progress, it is clear that we must intensify and accelerate our work. We are discussing with the Commission how this can best be done.”
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier hit out at Boris Johnson and the UK government on Friday for allegedly breaking the political declaration, which set the parameters of a future trade deal.
Mordaunt addressed Barnier’s comments today in the House of Commons, saying that he was misrepresenting what the meaning of the political declaration .
“The political declaration is not a treaty, there will be differences on both sides to interpretation and the point that we have emphasised in the last few days is that the EU cannot be the referee in that,” she said.