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Could Brexit be ditched?

Thats a question being asked at Westminster.

The idea that the United Kingdom could remain part of the European Union after all was raised by the BBC last week. It reported that some people involved in the Brexit process believed that an economic downturn could mean the UK stays in the EU after all.

Another possibility would be for the UK join the European Economic Area, which means you have to obey EU rules but also keep many of the benefits of membership.

This would allow politicians to say theyve accepted the result of the 2016 EU referendum, when 52 per cent of voters backed Brexit, while avoiding a full break.

As things stand, the UK is due to leave the EU by March 2019. Thats still the most likely outcome.

But other options are starting to look possible too.

For one thing, employers are getting increasingly nervous. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents larger firms, last week called on the Government to ensure the UK remains in the single market and the customs union even after the March 2019 deadline for leaving the EU.

The EU single market is the agreement that guarantees the free movement of goods, capital, services, and labour between countries.

And the customs union means that there are no customs duties levied on goods travelling between countries, and also no delays when goods cross borders.

The CBI says its not trying to stop Brexit, but it wants to have as much continuity as possible.

In a lecture at the London School of Economics, CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said: This is not about whether we are leaving the EU, it is about how. Once the Article 50 clock strikes midnight on 29th March 2019 the UK will leave the EU.

Our proposal for a limited transition period paving our way to a new future. This common-sense approach would bring continuity to firms in the UK and the EU and protect investment today.

In practice, however, any transitional arrangements could easily end up being permanent.

And remaining members of both the single market and the customs union would mean that we continue to be bound by EU rules. For example, wed continue to have freedom of movement with other EU countries, allowing European migrants to come here to work, and wed be unable to sign our own trade deals with other countries.

It depends partly on how much the Government, or the opposition parties, share the concerns of employers about threats facing the economy.

Michel Barnier, the French politician who is now the EUs Brexit negotiator, insisted last week that the UK simply cant retain the benefits of single market membership, which allows the UK to trade with EU countries, without being a member.

He said: I have heard some people in the UK argue that one can leave the single market and keep all of its benefits that is not possible.

I have heard some people in the UK argue that one can leave the single market and build a customs union to achieve frictionless trade that is not possible.

But he also said it wasnt possible to keep the benefits of the customs union if we leave the EU.

He said: By choosing to leave the Union, you move to the other side of the external border that delineates not only the customs union but also the area in which the rules of the internal market are adopted and implemented.

Only the combination of the internal market and the customs union guarantees the free movement of goods.

Some supporters of Brexit insist there is no doubt about leaving.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Conservative MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumbria and a strong Brexit supporter, said: It is mischief making by those who lost the battle.

Government really is now all Brexit facing.

She added: The machinery is entirely focused on Brexit. So yes, we will get a full Brexit.

The question is probably only what cheque size we have to write to appease the accountants at the European Commission, who are cross that they are going to lose 19 or 20 billion a year out of their budget.

But its without question that the machinery of government is now doing what the British people asked them to do.

International trade secretary Liam Fox, a staunch Brexiteer, was in no mood for compromise last week, as he told the House of Commons that sections of the media including the BBC were trying to stop Brexit.

He told MPs: It does appear that some elements of our media would rather see Britain fail than see Brexit succeed . . . I cannot recall a single time in recent times when I have seen good economic news that the BBC didnt describe as despite Brexit.

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Could the UK stay in the European Union after all? That's the question being asked at Westminster - ChronicleLive

LONDON The British government is confident it can get legislation to begin the process of transferring European Union law into British law through parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May's deputy said on Monday.

The Repeal Bill, which the government says will help achieve a smooth transition as Britain leaves the EU, will transpose EU law and also repeal the 1972 European Communities Act which formalises Britain's EU membership.

"I'm confident that we can get this legislation through parliament," First Secretary of State Damian Green, who is effectively May's deputy, told Sky News, adding that he expected lots of debate along the way.

Green said although the bill, which is due to be presented to parliament this week, was complex from a legislative point of view, it was a simple concept.

May's Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority at an election last month, and were forced to secure a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to support her on key votes in parliament.

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Kylie MacLellan, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

LONDON The cladding system used on London's Grenfell Tower would only have met British regulatory standards if the two main materials had passed a key safety test together, according to a Reuters analysis of the building code and data on the materials.

LONDON TalkTalk Telecom Chief Financial Officer Iain Torrens will step down this year, continuing the reshaping of the British company's top team under founder and Executive Chairman Charles Dunstone.

LONDON Britain's scheduled exit from the European Union may never happen because its main political parties are too divided on the issue, said Vince Cable, a veteran lawmaker bidding to lead the fourth largest political party, the Liberal Democrats.

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May's deputy says confident can get EU repeal bill through parliament - Reuters UK

As Japan struck a multinational trade agreement in principle Thursday with the European Union, farmers in Montana watched from the outside with their noses pressed against the glass.

Japan is a top three customer for Montana commodities, the states largest grain buyer in the Asian Pacific, where roughly 80 percent of Montanas hard red spring and hard red winter wheat is exported.

The deal with the European Union promises to sew up trade terms for one third of the world economy. It was not unlike the U.S.-brokered, 13-nation Trans Pacific Partnership that Montana farmers had hoped would level the playing field for Montana products in Japan and other Pacific countries by removing tariffs and other restrictions.

TPP nations accounted for 42 percent of the worlds gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. Would-be partners like Vietnam had economic growth that was three times that of more advanced nations. The deal fell apart under a new wave of nationalism in the United States. It was declared dead the day President Donald Trump took office.

Were seeing this as a direct result of us pulling out of TPP, said Gordon Stoner, an Outlook farmer and National Association of Wheat Growers past president. As long as we were at the table with TPP, Japan was not going to upset the apple cart with us.

The Trump administration has promised a bilateral agreement with Japan that includes parts of the TPP deal that the president likes, though while campaigning in 2016, Trump wrote off TPP and other multinational trade deals, like the North America Free Trade Agreement as disastrous for the U.S. employment, particularly manufacturing.

For Stoner and other Montana farmers with a voice on national farm economic issues, the issue with the bilateral trade talks is time. The United States invested years in making TPP work. Switching to bilateral agreements could take several more years.

Whether the EU deal will hurt Montana grain trade remains to be seen. Europe and the United States compete directly in global wheat markets, but on specific grain types like Montanas hard red spring and winter wheat varieties, Europe may not be a threat. Those high-protein varieties arent grown everywhere.

Asian millers are used to importing those grains from Montana and North Dakota. The majority of Montanas large grain elevators, designed to load mile-long trains bound for Pacific Northwest ports, are at least partially owned by Asian corporations.

Stoner is hopeful theres enough of an Asian stake in the Montana grain trade and a unique enough offering by Montana farmers to gird against an EU trade deal.

A deal between Japan and the EU is generally unfavorable for the United States, said Vincent Smith, economist at Montana State University, who specializes in agricultural policy and international trade.

The United States buys steel from both Japan and European Union nations. Manufacturers in the United States could also be affected by a Japan-EU trade agreement.

The obvious win for Japan is easier sales of Japanese automobiles in Europe, an arrangement that will likely increase the price of Japanese autos in the United States by virtue of increased demand in the EU.

The biggest story is what it says about the U.S., Smith said. Is this another indicator that the U.S. is less important in the world, particularly because of the presidents attitude, at least as he articulates it to world trade?

The world is saying If your administration is going to assume that it can play by any rules it chooses, then were not going to worry about you. Were going to work in another direction.'

There are Montanans who were opposed to the TPP regardless of what it meant for the states $5 billion agricultural economy.

Matthew Koehler, of the Wild West Institute, said the inclusion of underdeveloped nations with labor policies that permitted child factory workers, poor working conditions and low pay, was reason enough oppose TPP. There were environmental policies related to industry that also didnt line up with policies in the United States. Even if the U.S. insisted those policies improve, trade terms still werent supportive of U.S. workers, Koehler said.

"The EU and Japan are very similar economies. They have similar regulations governing a lot of things like the rights of workers, protecting the environment, Koehler said. The TPP was including countries where slave labor was still allowed.

The TPP nations were Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Lee Montana newspapers in May that the inability of lesser-developed countries to meet trade terms easily met by the United States and Japan suggested that a bilateral agreement would be more relevant.

Excerpt from:
Japan and EU strike trade deal as Montana farmers look on - Billings Gazette

The chief Brexit negotiator said the European Union wanted an international agreement with British authorities where legislation was controlled by both sides.

Mr Verhofstadt has backed away from EU guidelines which state the European Court of Justice should continue to have a say on EU nationals' rights in the UK.

Brussels officials had lashed out at Theresa Mays offer for EU citizen rights branding it a damp squib which they will never endorse in the final Brexit deal.

Asked if it was his insistence the rights of EU citizens in the UK was overseen by the European Court of Justice, Mr Verhofstadt said joint power sharing was now the way forward.

Speaking on the Today programme, on BBC Radio 4, he said: In the proposal by the UK Government it will be a change in the national migration legislation and we dont accept that as we have made very clear.

It has to be based on an international agreement because we cannot accept that from one day or another, the British parliament is changing that system.

GETTYBBC

What we want is to be protected in an international agreement between the European Union on the one hand and the UK authorities

Chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt

The lead negotiator for the European Parliament added European citizens could not be treated as second class people in the UK.

And he denied he was trying to push for a system where EU citizens had more rights than UK citizens.

He said he wanted the existing rights of the three million EU citizens in the UK to be continued.

He said: Not at all, it is the existing system. What we want is to be protected in an international agreement between the European Union on the one hand and the UK authorities on the other hand.

The reason why we want an international agreement is then automatically you will have an oversight by the British authorities on the one hand but also the European authorities at the other hand because an international agreement will be scrutinised and will be controlled by both sides because there are two parties in it.

Members of the European Parliament, who will have a vote on the final deal, have vowed they will veto Mrs Mays proposal for its citizens post-Brexit as they said it lessened the rights of its nationals.

Last month, Theresa May offered European nationals currently living in the UK full residency status as part of a fair and serious offer which would have a negotiated cut-off date.

But MEPs have said they will never endorse such an offer, adding that they will push for the ECJ to play a full role for both British and European citizens.

Guy Verhofstadt, writing to the Guardian with several other MEPs, said: It was a damp squib, proposing that Europeans obtain the status of third-country nationals in the UK, with fewer rights than British citizens are offered throughout the EU.

We will never endorse the retroactive removal of acquired rights. The European Parliament will reserve its right to reject any agreement that treats EU citizens, regardless of their nationality, less favourably than they are at present."

EPA

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David Davis and Michel Barnier give a press conference at the end of a meeting at EU Commission in Brussels

The MEPs added: [The offer] is even in contradiction with the Vote Leave manifesto which promised it would treat EU citizens no less favourably than at present.

Mr Verhofstadt also pledged that he and other MEPs will help steer negotiations despite divorce talks being led by the European Commission and Michel Barnier, Brussels chief Brexit negotiator.

A major new document published by the Home Office last month outlined Britain's proposals on the status of EU nationals.

It revealed that any EU citizen living in the UK for five years at a specified cut-off date will be granted "settled status". This means they have the same access to healthcare, education, pensions and benefits as UK citizens.

EU citizens who arrive after the cut-off point will be given two years to "regularise their status". And an ID card system may be introduced so EU citizens can access public services such as the NHS.

Jean-Claude Junckers European Commission published its most detailed yet proposals on how it wants to see European Union citizens see protected during the Brexit negotiations.

Eurocrats are demanding that current rights, including access to benefits, are kept for a huge number of people, some with dubious connections to the UK.

Under the EUs guidelines that deal would also have to cover EU citizens who have worked here in the UK in the past, ludicrously even if they commuted and never actually lived here.

On top of that, Brussels is insisting that there can be no cut off date ahead of Brexit meaning that people who arrived the day before Britain leaves would be allowed to stay indefinitely.

And they would be allowed to bring current and future family members to live with them at any time, which could include grandchildren not even born yet.

All of these citizens would have their rights supervised by the Luxembourg-based ECJ, meaning Britain would not be truly free of EU lawmakers.

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EU backs down! Verhofstadt admits bloc would concede ECJ power over citizens' rights in UK - Express.co.uk

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The European Union and Canada said on Saturday they had agreed to start a free trade agreement on Sept. 21, paving the way for over 90 percent of the treaty to come into effect.

READ MORE: Justin Trudeau to continue charm offensive ahead of NAFTA talks

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been championed by both sides as a landmark deal for open markets against a protectionist tide, but last-minute wrangles over cheese and pharmaceuticals were holding up its start.

WATCH: G20 Summit: Trudeau expected to discuss free-trade deal with India

Meeting at the G20 in Hamburg, reconfirming our joint commitment to the rules-based international trading system, we agreed to set the date of 21 September 2017 to start the provisional application of the agreement, thus allowing for all the necessary implementing measures to be taken before that date, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

WATCH: Trudeau tried to convince Trump the merits of fighting climate change

It is by opening up to each other, by working closely with those who share the same values that we will shape and harness globalization, the joint declaration said.

The agreement will enter definitively into force once all 28 EU member states and parliaments ratify it.

WATCH: What should we expect from Trudeau at G20?

The EU had not been satisfied that Canada would effectively open up its markets to 17,700 additional tonnes of EU cheese and provide guarantees for the patents of European pharmaceuticals.

A spokesman for Canadian trade minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the allocation of the cheese tariff rate quota would be made before the September deadline.

READ MORE: Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel meet prior to start of G20 summit in Hamburg

So what happens now is that both sides will complete their internal processes and closely consult one another on how the agreement will be implemented. This is about ensuring a smooth transition to a strong start for CETA, the spokesman said.

Both sides had been hoping for the provisional implementation of the agreement this month.

2017Reuters

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Canada and European Union agree to begin free trade agreement this fall - Globalnews.ca