Britain and Brussels on Tuesday clashed over upcoming trade talks, with London roundly rejecting key elements of the EU’s negotiating platform, setting up an acrimonious start to negotiations next week.
Michel Barnier, head of the European Commission’s Task Force for Relations with the UK, said that the bloc would not abandon its principles to get a deal and took aim at a British minister as tensions between the two sides ramped up.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman fired back, saying that Britain would not cave to Brussels’ demands for access to fishing waters or its insistence that British companies stick to EU standards on goods.
“We will not conclude an agreement at any price,” Barnier told reporters after EU ministers approved his negotiating mandate, warning that negotiations would be “difficult, perhaps even very difficult.”
The talks are to begin in Brussels on Monday in an increasingly poisonous atmosphere, with the clock ticking down to a Dec. 31 deadline to reach a deal.
Johnson has ruled out seeking any extension.
Britain left the EU at the end of last month under the withdrawal agreement struck late last year, and is to be regarded as a non-EU “third country” in the negotiations even though it still trades like an EU member until the end of December, when its transition period out of the bloc ends.
Without an accord on the new relationship, trade between the EU and Britain would revert to a bare-bones arrangement under WTO rules, causing economic pain on both sides, but especially in the UK.
Barnier’s mandate emphasizes that Britain has to mirror European standards if it wants its goods to continue to have tariff-free access to the huge single market, saying that any deal struck with the UK must include “robust commitments” to uphold norms.
Brussels fears that without these so-called “level playing field” guarantees, the UK might seek a competitive edge over Europe by undercutting its tax, environmental and labor standards.
However, Downing Street rejected this in a series of tweets sent while Barnier was still on his feet in the news conference, saying that the EU had offered the US zero tariffs “without the kind of level playing field commitments” seen in Tuesday’s mandate.
Johnson’s spokesman also said that Britain “must have full control” of its laws, echoing earlier pledges to walk away rather than obey EU diktats.
Within hours of Barnier’s mandate, British ministers in London approved their own negotiating approach.
Details are not due to be published until today, but Johnson’s spokesman said that the goal was “to ensure we restore our economic and political independence on Jan. 1, 2021” — meaning Britain intends to set its own norms irrespective of EU rules.
France in particular hardened the EU position, aiming to heighten trade friction the more the UK diverges from EU standards, as well as putting access for EU fishing boats to British waters at the heart of the mandate.
The EU now wants any future deal to “uphold existing reciprocal access conditions” for fishing fleets, but this was swiftly shot down by James Slack, Johnson’s spokesman.
“It doesn’t matter what the EU puts in its mandate, as we become an independent coastal state on Dec. 31 2020. That means we automatically take back control of our waters and others’ right to fish in them,” Slack said.
“We are prepared to have a discussion about who fishes in our waters but the point is we will be in control of those waters and it will be our determination to make,” he said.
While the two sides are clashing on substance, trust is dwindling as well, with Johnson’s government saying British ports are not being readied to carry out checks on goods between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The normally unflappable Barnier singled out British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis over what he called “astonishing comments” suggesting there would be unfettered access for business between Northern Ireland and the UK.
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