Return_of_the_STAR wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/23/brexit-transition-period-final-eu-trade-deal-theresa-mayTheresa May has signalled there will be no transitional period to prevent a “cliff-edge” Brexit unless the UK manages to agree a deal with the EU on their future relationship.
The prime minister has been under pressure to help businesses plan for the future by agreeing a time-limited transitional period by Christmas, but she told MPs that this “implementation phase” could only be agreed when a trade deal had been struck.
“The point of the implementation period is to put in place the practical changes necessary to move to the future partnership, and in order to have that you need to know what that future partnership is going to be,” she said.
No chance of a trade deal being agreed in this time.
There's a lot of semantics to unpack in all the Brexit comments.
Tautologically, an "implementation period" requires a general agreement on what is to be implemented. I think there are WTO rules about implementation periods that mean they can't just be a handwaving "give us a few years to sort something out". Having said that, we're in uncharted territory since we're moving out of a trade deal rather than the more standard practice of implementing one that replaces the default 'most favoured nation' status.
What we're actually wanting is an extension on the Art.50 deadline to allow an agreement to be done. We aren't even close to starting the negotiations on the nature of our future relationship, let alone the specific trade deal that covers that relationship. No way we'll have everything sorted by March 2019.
Unfortunately, asking for that would be poison to leave supporters and the right-wing press - and it also requires unanimous approval by the EU27 - some of whom will no doubt demand something in return.
Regarding the news on Davis's 50-sector economic report, it's funny how the EU don't worry too much about publishing their impact assessments.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/595374/IPOL_STU(2017)595374_EN.pdfhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/602058/IPOL_STU(2017)602058_EN.pdfOne might almost conclude that the refusal to publish implies that the UK assessments of Brexit are of a rather negative character.
EDIT: apologies for the quote fuckup. I assume it's a new/resitricted/junior member issue.