EU pushes UK for deal on post-Brexit trade ties

Bloomberg

The European Union signaled Prime Minister Theresa May must first strike a deal for the UK’s post-Brexit trade ties with the bloc or lose out on a transitional phase that banks and businesses want.
As both sides prepare to face off in the new year, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that there might be “some point” to granting British industries a period to adjust to the new arrangements after Brexit, but that would depend on a permanent trade plan being agreed.
“What the future relationship may be may shed the light on the usefulness of a transitional period and may have an impact on the negotiations itself,” Barnier said. “There would be some point and usefulness to a transitional period if it is the path to this new partnership.” While bankers and corporate executives would welcome clarity about the UK’s long-term plan and a transition to it, May is reluctant to give too many details about her ambitions early on for fear she would hand a negotiating advantage to her interlocutors. Pressed on the issue during a trip to Bahrain, May said only that she wanted the “right deal” for Britain.
“People talk about the sort of Brexit that there is going to be, is it hard, soft, is it grey, white, actually we want a red, white and blue Brexit,” she said in an interview with Sky News. “That is the right Brexit for the United Kingdom.”
Refusal to sign up to the EU’s map would risk leaving the UK without a safety net in the event it cannot secure a permanent trade pact by October 2018. Barnier said an agreement will be needed by then if May triggers talks by March 31. While the law allows for two years of discussions, any deal will need to be ratified by the European Parliament. May’s spokesman, Greg Swift, told reporters in London that the UK is “not making any kind of commitment” on a possible transitional agreement and has no intention of taking more than two years to exit the bloc after triggering talks by the end of March next year. The detailed time scale will emerge as the negotiations develop after the invoking of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, he said.
“It’s our Article 50 as well, as we are members of the EU,” Swift said. “The timetable is clear and we have been very clear that once we’ve triggered Article 50 we will use the negotiations to secure the best possible deal we can to exit the European Union while not looking to extend that two year process.” Barnier said “it’s too soon” to discuss the details of Brexit although he noted it is for the UK to make a proposal. He said the rest of the EU would be united, wouldn’t engage with Britain informally before the official talks and that the UK wouldn’t be able to cherry pick the benefits of membership. He also said the single market and its four freedoms of capital, goods, services and people were “indivisible.”
“Keep calm and negotiate,” Barnier said. “The work will be legally complex, politically sensitive and will have important consequences for our economies and first for our people on both sides of the channel.” In a sign relations between the UK and EU remain brittle, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday that Brexit “can be smooth, it can be orderly, but it requires a different attitude I think on the part of the British government.”