The negotiation of the future relationship between London and Brussels should not start until early March, but the PowerPoint war is already raging between the two parties. Downing Street brandished a staircase graphic produced by Michel Barnier's teams in 2017 on Tuesday 18 February, claiming that the Europeans had promised the United Kingdom a “Canada type” trade agreement, on the model of that signed between Brussels. and Ottawa in 2016. This free trade treaty eliminates almost all customs duties and quotas for goods between Canada and the member countries of the European Union (EU).
In 2017 the EU showed on their own slide that a Canada type FTA was the only available relationship for the UK. Now… https://t.co/5GMa7rJrgk
The European Commission replied that it had never committed itself in this way, and circulates, since Wednesday, February 19, a new diagram, each EU trading partner being represented by a colored circle, supposed to illustrate the reasons why the United Kingdom " is different " from other partners and cannot, therefore, be treated exactly like Canada.
The dispute between Brussels and London concerns what European negotiators call the “level playing field” (literally, a level playing field). Europeans fear that after Brexit, the UK willfully lower its environmental, tax, labor law or state aid standards to gain crucial competitive advantages and unfair competition at its doorstep . Part of them – the French in particular – want to make the signing of a "zero tariffs, zero quota" trade agreement conditional on London's obligation to continue to align with existing but also future EU rules. "Zero dumping", therefore.
The EU has certainly not imposed a level playing field on Canada. For two reasons, they explain in Brussels: the geographic distance, and the volume of trade considered. The closer the partner, the more important the regulatory alignment. "We are ready to offer a very ambitious trade agreement but the UK can only expect high quality access to the single market if it is ready to accept the guarantees required by the EU for fair and open competition", is it explained in the document published Wednesday by the Commission.
Extremely simplified diagram
" The United Kingdom will become the EU’s third partner, with European imports from the country reaching € 197 billion in 2018. This is almost 10 times the amount imported by the EU from Canada. However, Canada is 5,000 km from the European coast ”, add the document.
