B4
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2020
UK and EU clash over trade
By JILL LAWLESS and RAF CASERT
Associated Press
LONDON — Britain and the European
Union set out clashing opening gambits Mon-
day on striking a post-Brexit trade deal, mak-
ing it clear that each side is willing to walk
away without an agreement rather than com-
promise on key issues.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent
a bravado-fi lled salvo toward Brussels three
days after Britain left the bloc, the fi rst coun-
try to exit. In a speech to business leaders and
international diplomats in London, Johnson
said “we want a free trade agreement” — but
not at any cost.
“I see no need to bind ourselves to an
agreement with the EU,” he said, insisting
that Britain would “restore full sovereign con-
trol” over its borders, rules and economy.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was
equally emphatic that the EU’s 27 remaining
nations wouldn’t agree to any British trade
deal just to avoid a costly, chaotic “no-deal”
at the start of 2021, when an 11-month post-
Brexit transition period ends.
“We are in favor of free trade, but we are
not going to be naive,” Barnier said. “If the
request is to have broad access to a market of
450 million European consumers, zero tariffs,
zero quotas — that won’t happen for nothing,
or in any kind of condition.”
In their divorce agreement, Britain and
the EU agreed to strike an “ambitious, broad,
deep and fl exible partnership,” including a
free trade deal and agreements for security
and other areas. The details are to be worked
out during a transition period lasting until the
end of 2020, in which relations stay essen-
tially unchanged. For the rest of this year
the U.K. will continue to follow EU rules,
although it will no longer have a say in EU
decision-making.
After that, a cliff-edge looms. But John-
son insisted the choice facing Britain was not
“deal or no deal.”
“The question is whether we agree a trad-
ing relationship with the EU comparable to
Canada’s – or more like Australia’s,” John-
son said.
Australia does not have a free-trade deal
with the EU, and Australia-style trade would
mean a panoply of new tariffs and other bar-
riers between the U.K. and the EU, its near
neighbor and biggest trading partner.
Britain is aiming for a “Canada-style” free
trade agreement with the EU, which would
eliminate almost all tariffs and cover both
goods and services. But it is adamant it won’t
agree to follow the EU’s entire rule book in
return for unfettered trade because it wants to
be free to diverge in order to strike other new
deals around the world.
The bloc insists there can be no trade
deal unless Britain agrees to a “level playing
fi eld” and doesn’t undercut EU regulations,
Frank Augstein/AP Photo
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlines his government’s negotiating stance with the
European Union after Brexit during a key speech at the Old Naval College in London on Monday.
‘WE ARE IN FAVOR OF FREE TRADE, BUT WE ARE
NOT GOING TO BE NAIVE. IF THE REQUEST IS TO
HAVE BROAD ACCESS TO A MARKET OF 450 MILLION
EUROPEAN CONSUMERS, ZERO TARIFFS, ZERO
QUOTAS — THAT WON’T HAPPEN FOR NOTHING,
OR IN ANY KIND OF CONDITION.’
Michel Barnier | European Union’s chief negotiator
especially when it comes to the environ-
ment, workers’ rights and health and safety
standards.
“There is no such thing like a free ride
to the (EU’s) single market,” EU Commis-
sion President Ursula von der Leyen said.
“It is always rights and obligations in a good
balance.”
Johnson, however, doubled down on Brit-
ain’s tough stance in Monday’s speech. He
delivered it in the Painted Hall at the Old
Royal Naval College in Greenwich on the
River Thames, a spot steeped in Britain’s
past military glories. The vast hall, covered
in paintings glorifying British achievement, is
where Adm. Horatio Nelson lay in state after
his death at the Battle of Trafalgar against the
navies of France and Spain in 1805.
Even as he set out a vision of trade that
would impose new barriers between Brit-
ain and the EU, Johnson said the U.K. would
become a champion of free trade in a world
where “the protectionists are gaining ground.”
And he sought to allay EU fears that a
post-Brexit Britain will slash workplace and
environmental protections in order to gain a
competitive edge.
“The U.K. will maintain the highest
standards in these areas — better, in many
respects, than those of the EU — without the
compulsion of a treaty,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s bullish message was aimed as
much at a domestic audience as it was at the
bloc, but EU leaders are unlikely to be reas-
sured by what they’ll see as British intransi-
gence and wishful thinking.
“The U.K. can independently decide not to
respect the rules,” said France’s Europe Min-
ister Amelie de Montchalin before pointedly
adding: “But when it passes the frontier, it
concerns the place where it arrives.”
She said the EU would be as vigilant about
checking the product itself as about the way
it is produced, making sure it would respect
social, environmental and other standards that
are cornerstones of EU policy.
“It is important for European citizens
to know that the single market will be pro-
tected,” she said.
Barnier signaled that one fl ashpoint in the
talks will be fi shing. He said the EU would
link access to its market for British products
directly to the access that EU boats are given
to U.K. waters.
“That agreement on fi sheries will be inex-
tricably linked to the trade agreement,” he
said.
Formal trade talks won’t start until next
month, once they have been approved by all
27 EU nations.
EU leaders have repeatedly warned that
the timetable is tight to strike any kind of
deal. Free-trade agreements typically take
years. The EU-Canada deal that the British
government cited as a model took seven years
to negotiate.
If there is no deal by the end of 2020,
and the U.K. refuses to extend the negotiat-
ing period, Britain faces an abrupt, disruptive
economic break from the bloc — with tariffs
and other obstacles to trade imposed immedi-
ately between the U.K. and the EU.
That prospect alarms many businesses,
especially in sectors such as the auto indus-
try, which depend on the easy fl ow of parts
across borders.
The devil will be in the details, and Brit-
ain’s position as outlined in a government
document is less set in stone than Johnson’s
speech suggested. It said Britain would nego-
tiate with the EU “on access to waters and
fi shing opportunities,” and also spoke of pos-
sible “regulatory and supervisory coopera-
tion” in fi nancial services, a key area for the
British economy.
However, Barnier said the EU would con-
tinue to prepare for no deal.
“If we cannot manage by the end of the
year, there will be a widespread cliff,” he said.
Johnson, however, brushed off the idea of
a “no-deal” Brexit — though that is essen-
tially what Australian-style trade means.
One word was noticeably missing from
his wide-ranging speech: “Brexit.” Asked
whether he had banned the term, he said: “It’s
not banned. It’s just over.”
Jill Rutter of political think-tank U.K. in a
Changing Europe said there was a gap in both
style and substance between the two sides.
“The U.K. PM has chosen a speech in a
historic setting to lay down red lines, embel-
lished with rhetorical fl ourishes, while the EU
has laid out 167 paragraphs of negotiating
demands in a functional conference room in
Brussels,” she said.
“We have to hope that, behind the Johnson
oratory, U.K. ministers have agreed their own
parallel version of the EU text.”
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