EU: Future Relationship White Paper

Alan Brown Excerpts

Thursday 12th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is right, and he is well-versed in international trade practice. The key advantage in our approach is that we have the ability to remove the EU external tariff, to reduce tariffs as a World Trade Organisation member, and to sign bilateral free trade deals, which is crucial in terms of our leverage. For services, we will not be bound by the rules of the EU, and can take advantage of that not just in the wider services sector but in particular in financial services, and the digital sector, which is so important for the future jobs this country will rely on.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

It has taken this Government two years to publish what is just a big set of wish lists. Paragraph 63:

“the UK proposes a new economic…arrangement with the EU in financial services”;

paragraph 130:

“explore options for…an Air Transport Agreement”;

paragraph 134:

“explore options for reciprocal access for road hauliers”;

paragraph 140:

“explore…options for the future energy relationship”;

and paragraph 143, explore a close relationship with Euratom.

So it has taken the Government two years to state the blindingly obvious. What superhuman negotiation skills does the Secretary of State have to be able to close out these issues in the next three to four months?

[Dominic Raab]

Lots of these issues are complex, and of course we have been guided, or restricted to some degree, by the sequential approach of the EU. But lots of thought and consultation has gone into this, and we do now need to move at pace to get cracking with the other side, in good faith and with goodwill, to get this deal done.