Good Morning,
This week the EU and the UK set out their negotiation aims for the future relationship and the Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz truss, outlined the future of the UK’s approach to trade deals..
Enjoy,
Jacob
In Politics
Starting Positions.
EU sets out negotiation aims
UK also sets out negotiation aims
Level Playing Field and fisheries likely to be big sticking points
On Monday both the UK and the EU set out their negotiating aims for the future relationship The EU set their aims out in a detailed policy document, available here, while the UK Government published a written statement followed by a speech in the Commons by Boris Johnson, statement available here.
What the EU wants is a level playing field (LPF) and access to UK fisheries. Get used to hearing the phrase level playing field, it is a key sticking point between the UK and EU. The Institute for Government has a useful explainer on what it is here. The EU want to agree a LPF because they are concerned that the UK will undercut the EU once it is free to do so, especially by using state aid, and the proximity of the UK market makes this undercutting dangerous to their internal market.
Civil society should get to know the LPF as it includes measures to prevent the UK cutting labour and social rights along with key environmental standards. The EU objectives outline that the UK should ensure that it maintains the standards agreed at the end of the transition period and furthermore adequately fund bodies to effectively enforce these standards.Many of the rights and standards currently enjoyed in the UK are enforced by EU bodies and the UK Government needs to replace these. The Government has so far used Statutory Instruments to remove obligations to some bodies without replacing them with UK equivalents. For example removing the ‘obligation to notify bodies of air quality or pollutant emissions’ detailed in this blog here. This is something the UK has lagged behind on doing so far while also removing references to EU bodies at the same time. This UK Constitutional Law Association blog details some of what the UK Government has done.
Meanwhile the UK Government outlined it wishes to have a free trade agreement with the UK minus the LPF and with control over fisheries. The UK wants to be out of the European Court of Justice and therefore don’t want the LPF. They argue for a so-called ‘Canada’ style arrangement. This disagreement here is less about the UK wanting to undercut the EU, the UK is unlikely to suddenly issue huge amounts of state aid to undercut EU companies, but more about who gets to enforce the agreement between the EU and UK. The UK does not want the EU’s court to be the decider. Politically this is a key priority of the PM.
This is only the beginning of negotiations though. Due to the tight deadline there is potential for one side to blink and give up their key asks, but it will likely be a while until we see who blinks first.
In Policy
UK Trade Policy
Liz Truss set out the approach the UK will take to trade deals
Public consultation on this is now open
Claims to protect standards, while also wantign to cut 'red tape'
This week Liz Truss, the Secretary of State for International Trade, published written statements about the UK’s future trade policy. These set out how the UK will approach potential trade deals with countries, such as the USA, in the future.
In one of her statements Truss outlines that the NHS “will not be on the table”. Further to this she states that the Government will “not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards”. Organisations such as Sustain have frequently argued for a high standards UK, and to maintain these high standards in future trade agreements. They have outlined 10 ‘red lines’ for trade deals for food, farming and fishing. The first key point is that future trade deals should be under democratic control. Currently Parliament has very little say over trade deals, including the inability to set negotiation objectives, amendments, or a vote to approve a deal. The House of Commons Library goes further into this here.
Despite assurances from Truss about protection of standards, she has simultaneously stated that the Government will aim to seek agreements that “cuts red tape to support British business” a phrase that will likely concern those focused on rights and standards, particularly labour rights. We will see during the negotiations with the EU what priorities the UK Government has on trade deals.
Useful to note is that Truss also stated that the Department for International Trade has opened a public consultation on the future of the UK’s tariff policy. It opened on the 6th and is open for four weeks to the 5th March 2020 you can be involved here.
In Events
Communities In Charge Film
Locality have launched a new film from the Communities in Charge campaign featuring the Annexe in Hartlepool. Watch the film here.
About Communities in Charge
The government has promised to create a Shared Prosperity Fund after Brexit, to replace EU funds for economic development. We know how badly this money is needed in places which often feel forgotten.
The Communities in Charge campaign is calling for communities to be put directly in charge of the government’s post-Brexit funding for economic regeneration. They know best what their places need, so let’s put them in charge.
Locality has worked with The Annexe in Hartlepool to produce a new short film to show how community-led approaches do not just provide good social outcomes but are also proven to create stronger local economies.
Their campaign is calling for:
Resources to be targeted at the people and places which need it most
Local people to scrutinise all spending decisions through a dramatic increase in accountability
At least a quarter of the fund to go directly to local people to invest in their own priorities for the economy
Recommended Reading
Kierra Box, Brexit campaign lead at Friends of the Earth asks whether the UK will protect the environment now that we’ve left the EU- read it here
Johnson bans phrases such as ‘Brexit’ and ‘no-deal’ covered by the Guardian here
Challenges facing the UK-US trade deal in the FT
Tony Connelly in RTE talks about what is to come next here