EU nations are preparing to toughen the conditions they will attach to any tariff-free trade deal with the UK, reinforcing demands from Brussels on regulatory alignment and access to fishing waters that Britain has already rejected.
But even as national ambassadors prepare to review the EU’s draft negotiating mandate in a meeting on Wednesday, Britain is advancing a clear vision of what it wants from the trade talks.
The UK’s position under Boris Johnson is in stark contrast to that of his predecessor Theresa May, whose premiership was plagued by her inability to rally her party behind a shared vision of Brexit. Now, Britain says, it is the EU that is being inconsistent in its demands.
The latest version of the EU’s negotiating mandate, seen by the Financial Times, responds to concerns raised by France and others that the European Commission’s original draft, presented earlier this month, did not go far enough in requiring Britain to stick closely to the EU’s level of regulation, even as the bloc’s rules evolve over time.
The revised document prepared by EU officials, dated February 17, also made clear that any agreement should “uphold” EU fishermen’s current rights in UK waters.
The reinforced text is the latest sign of how the two sides are adopting starkly different negotiating positions ahead of the start of talks in March, which follow the UK’s formal exit from the bloc at the end of January.
David Frost, the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, made a bullish intervention in Brussels on Monday, warning the EU that Britain was determined to secure a Canada-style trade deal by the end of this year, when a standstill transition period expires. He said the bloc’s demands for a ‘level playing field’ undermine the fundamental purpose of Brexit.
Mr Johnson and Mr Frost have made clear that the country accepts that this new relationship will lead to increased barriers to trade compared with membership of the single market.
The EU insists that Britain is, in reality, seeking market access rights that go significantly beyond those enjoyed by other countries with which it has trade deals, such as Canada and Japan.
While those deals eliminate more than 90 per cent of tariffs, they leave duties in place on some of the most sensitive agricultural products, including meat and dairy. Britain and the EU, in contrast, are seeking a deal without tariffs on any product, and without quotas limiting the tariff-free access.
EU officials also underline that the consequences of doing a deal with Britain are completely different to doing one with Canada. EU27 imports of UK goods in 2018 were worth some €197bn — six times that of Canadian products.
“We have been together with the UK for almost half a century. Calais is only a couple of kilometres from Dover,” said a Commission spokesperson. “The UK cannot expect high-quality access to the single market if it also insists on diverging from our rules.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said the level playing field involved the EU and UK taking “a sovereign decision to have regulatory coherence”, adding that the step was about preventing “unfair competition” that could hurt either side’s businesses.
The UK is set to publish a detailed paper on its stance next week, while EU governments plan to adopt their mandate on February 25. The first session is set to be held in Brussels in early March.
EU capitals have said that any deal must contain clear assurances that the EU will not be undercut as it reinforces its rules in future, notably in environmental policy, where Brussels has ambitious plans to fight climate change through its “green new deal”.
The original text for a draft mandate presented by the Commission called on the UK to continue to honour EU rules in areas such as tax, social, and environmental policy as they stand at the end of the transition period, which expires on December 31. It also said the country should continue to abide by EU limits on state aid.
The new text says any trade deal must ensure a regulatory level playing field is created that “will stand the test of time” and provide “sufficient guarantees . . . so as to uphold corresponding high levels of protection over time.”
Diplomats said language about the level playing field will be further discussed at Wednesday’s meeting. France is expected to push for tougher language.
The competing positions set the stage for months of negotiations that will be dominated by disputes over the level playing field issue and fishing rights.
While Britain says it will become an independent coastal state, and access to its waters should be negotiated annually, the draft EU mandate underlines the bloc’s determination to preserve its fishermen’s existing rights in UK waters.
The latest version clarifies that the EU’s aim is nothing less than to “uphold existing reciprocal access conditions, quota shares and the traditional activity of the Union fleet.”
These are not the only areas where the EU is tightening conditions attached to its offer. Greece, Italy, Spain and Cyprus have succeeded in convincing the rest of the EU to insert demands that both sides should “address issues relating to the return or restitution of unlawfully removed cultural objects to their countries of origin”.
Diplomats said that language was not inspired by Greece’s grievance over the British Museum’s possession of the ‘Elgin’ marbles, but reflected the importance of London’s auction houses and its status in the global art market.
