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The EU and the U.K. are aiming to agree the Brexit treaty by October and to publish a framework for the future trade relationship between the two sides at the same time. But Davis said British legislators will be unlikely to sign up to the exit terms -- which include payments of as much as 39 billion pounds ($55 billion) to the EU -- without a clear trade plan.
“We have got to have the substance of the future relationship nailed down as well,” Davis told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event in London on Thursday. “The withdrawal agreement involves payments of up to 39 billion pounds -- that’s a lot of money -- and parliament is unlikely to sign off such a thing unless we know pretty substantively” what the trade offer will be.
His comments raise the stakes in the negotiations with just six months left to complete the legal text on the divorce terms. EU officials say the detailed talks on the terms of the future trade relationship will have to take place after Brexit, during the 21-month transition period, because there isn’t enough time before Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.
Davis is resisting this, though his warning of a parliamentary veto could come back to haunt him when legislators get to vote on the draft deal. Opponents of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU are already targeting the vote in Parliament as the key moment when they can try to reverse Brexit.
While he accepted that the future trade framework will not be in the form of a “legal text” by October, Davis said it must provide “quite a lot of detail.” [...]