24 November 2019

Financial Times: Paris promises ‘unique’ trade deal if UK agrees to play fair

The EU is ready to broker a “unique” trade partnership with the UK after the country leaves the bloc, but only if Britain commits to complying with EU labour and environmental standards, France’s trade minister has said.

Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, the French minister responsible for commerce, told the Financial Times that both sides needed a future trading relationship that was “very close” and that the outcome of negotiations was unlikely to “resemble any other bilateral agreement, any other trade agreement” the EU has struck, given geographical proximity and historical ties. 

But he added that “fair play” and a level playing field on regulation “will be at the heart of our demands for the future relationship . . . We have a mutual interest to preserve this flow of goods and to avoid dumping.” Under the terms of the Brexit deal that Boris Johnson struck with EU leaders in October, the EU and Britain will seek to reach agreement on a future relationship with duty-free and quota-free access for goods, as well as market access on services that at least matches recent agreements the EU has struck with Japan and Canada.

Both sides have said they want talks to begin quickly after Britain leaves, with the country’s post-Brexit transition period set to expire at the end of 2020, when tariffs and other restrictions could kick in if a deal is not reached in time. 

Mr Lemoyne insisted that, should Britain leave the EU as planned on January 31, Paris wanted negotiations to be conducted with real ambition, given that jobs were at stake if a deep future partnership cannot be built.

“We need a good agreement to secure jobs, growth on both sides of the Channel,” he said, noting that this is of particular concern to France given the size of the two countries’ bilateral trading relationship, which was worth £85bn last year, according to UK government data.  [...]

Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)

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