Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

UK Calls on EU to Grant ''Canada-Style" Trade Deal in Brexit


Fri 16 Oct 2020 | 10:30 PM
Ezzeldin Essam Ezzeldin

On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman stated that the trade talks between the UK and the European Union  "are over" and blamed the union for the failure in getting a trade deal before the end of the stance.

Johnson commented to broadcasters that "From the outset, UK was clear that it asked for nothing more complicated than a Canada-style relationship based on friendship and free trade. To judge by the latest EU summit in Brussels, that won’t work for our EU partners.”

Johnson added that the talks appeared to “explicitly to rule out a Canada-style deal”, forcing the PM to conclude “that we should get ready for January 1 with arrangements that are more like Australia’s based on simple principles of global free trade.”

It's worth mentioning that the  'Australian terms' means that the UK will end up with no trade deals with the EU, since the country does not have an agreement with the bloc.

Instead, it relies on defaults set by the World Trade Organisation, although some agreements are in place for certain goods.

Hence, the Prime Minister's official spokesman stated that "As I said, the EU effectively ended the trade talks yesterday. Only if the EU fundamentally changes its position, will it be worth talking?

Michel Barnier, the bloc's chief negotiator, was due to visit London next week however the spokesman said there was now "no point".

The spokesman explained: "There is only one point in Michel Barnier coming to London next week if he's prepared to discuss all of the issues based on a legal text in an accelerated way without the UK being required to make all of the moves, or planning to discuss the practicalities of areas such as travelling and haulage."

He said a perse negotiation would continue on the implementation of transitionary border rules for Northern Ireland, known as the Joint Committee process.

Moreover, the PM explained that, with less than 10 weeks left until the end of the transition period, he “had to make a judgement” on the conclusion if talks continue.

He continued, "Based on simple principles of Global free trade, and we can do it, because we always knew that there would be change on 1 January whatever type of relationship we had."