Brussels – European Union governments were expected to adopt a negotiating mandate on Tuesday for the tricky task of reaching a deal with Britain on future ties after it left the bloc in January.
The EU mandate aims to offer Britain, which sells 45 per cent of exports and buys 53 per cent of imports from the 27-nation bloc, no tariffs and no quotas in the future.
In exchange, it wants London not to undercut European companies with lower and, therefore, less costly environmental, labour, tax and state aid standards.
However, Britain does not want such a commitment, stressing its “primary objective in the negotiations is economic and political independence’’.
It is ready to accept tariffs and quotas similar to a deal the bloc has with Canada.
“We can have an agreement with zero tariffs and zero quotas if we can be sure,’’ France’s Europe Minister, Amelie de Montchalin, told newsmen on entering the meeting with colleagues from the bloc in Brussels.
“We will have common norms regulatory proximity on the basis of EU rules.
“If we cannot maintain this regulatory proximity, then we must apply tariffs or quotas, it’s not a position of revenge, it’s an economically rational position,’’ she said.
Britain would publish its own negotiating stance on Thursday and talks are to start coming week.
However, both sides want a deal by the end of the year, when Britain’s transition period ends.
According to German Europe Minister Michael Roth, this is an extremely ambitious timetable.
Without a trade deal, business contacts would be based on World Trade Organisation rules, which assume tariffs, quotas and cumbersome paperwork.
“Fisheries are important but also our trade relations, security, people-to-people contacts, and that makes the negotiations so challenging.
“The time pressure is immense, the interests are huge, it’s a very complicated treaty, so it will be very hard work,’’ Dutch Foreign Minister, Stef Blok, said.
The agreed text of the EU negotiating mandate says any new trade treaty between the EU and Britain “should prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages so as to ensure a sustainable and long-lasting relationship’’.
“The envisaged agreement should uphold common high standards and corresponding high standards over time with European Union standards as a reference point,’’ the document, seen by Reuters, said.
(Reuters/NAN)