‘UK has done enough for Brexit negotiations to move forward’

Bloomberg

UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox called on the European Union to allow Brexit negotiations to move on to future trade links, saying his government has done enough to satisfy the bloc’s demands for money. Fox said that while the UK wants a deal with the EU, it’s “not afraid” of talks breaking down and could trade with the 27 remaining member countries on World Trade Organization terms.
The EU has set Britain a December 4 deadline to improve its offer on the rights of European citizens living in the UK, the thorny question of the Irish border and the 60 billion-euro ($71 billion) Brexit bill, which Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to bring down. If May can’t convince the EU with her proposals on these divorce terms, it won’t allow negotiations to progress to the second stage — the crucial free-trade deal and transition phase that she wants.
“We believe that we’ve gone far enough to be able to get into this second stage,” Fox said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Sydney on Tuesday. “Remember, we’re almost getting into 2018 and we’re leaving in March 2019. So we need to make progress now because time is getting short.” Fox, who is drawing up plans for trade deals with countries including Australia and the US, said he did not fear failure to reach an agreement with the EU. He is in charge of negotiating new WTO terms and said Britain could do business with the EU on this basis if the Brexit talks go nowhere. That arrangement would mean new tariffs for British exporters.
“We could trade on WTO terms with the EU as we do with the US for example at the present time,” Fox said. “We want to get it, but we are not afraid to not get it.” One of the most difficult issues to resolve in the Brussels negotiations is the future of the Irish border. In a message to the Irish government, Fox said he did not want a hard border between the Republic, which will stay part of the EU, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. He insisted that the whole of the UK will be leaving both the EU single market and customs union, in a rebuff to those who’ve suggested that Northern Ireland could stay in the European customs arrangements to avoid the need for a border checkpoints.