Britain’s chief negotiator, David Frost, has accused Brussels of treating the UK as an “unworthy” partner by offering a low-quality trade agreement that he says would force the country to “bend to EU norms”....He further accuses Barnier of demanding unprecedented oversight over British laws and institutions through “novel and unbalanced proposals”, in an intervention that will heighten fears that the talks are now destined to fail....Frost says the EU demands would tie the UK to Brussels’ labour, environmental and social standards while offering a trade deal that fails to match those signed with others in reducing barriers to trade in animal products, motor vehicles, medicinal products, organics and chemicals.
He writes that the UK government’s proposed free trade deal is very close to that signed with Canada. The draft fisheries proposal is akin to that between the EU and Norway, he claims, and on aviation he says the UK is not seeking more than that given to other non-EU countries....In response to the EU argument that proximity and levels of trade require the UK to remain close to Brussels rules, Frost says Britain is less integrated than Switzerland, Norway or Ukraine and the argument on geography “amounts to saying that a country in Europe cannot expect to determine its own rules … and that it must bend to EU norms”.
On level-playing-field provisions, so central to the EU’s proposal, the UK text contains a cut-and-paste from the EU’s trade deal with Canada stating merely that it would be “inappropriate to encourage trade or investment by weakening or reducing the levels of protection” in current labour laws and standards....On state aid, a significant interest within the EU, the UK’s paper simply affords Brussels the right to “express its concerns” and request consultation. “The responding party shall afford full and sympathetic consideration to that request,” the document says.
The GUardian trots out a rather modest version of its usual scares:
Without a replacement deal, both sides will fall back on the World Trade Organization’s most favoured nation tariffs, which means duties on everyday food items from cheese to beef of more than 40%.
There is comfort at least in this:
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