We also need to examine a ‘no deal transition period’ – i.e: a payment for a period of time to enable both the UK and the EU to adjust to the changes ahead of us.
The International Trade Secretary expresses his scepticism to Andrew Bridgen.
Other options being floated are designed to hold us in the EU’s orbit in the hope that we may be sucked back in.
Its freedom to prosper, to make and judge its own laws, for its people ‘to take back control’ over how or by whom they are governed – all these will be lost for ever.
“My understanding is that the rest of the world trades on WTO rules with independent free trade agreements.”
This Withdrawal Agreement would leave us half in and half out of the EU as a ‘vassal state’. It is a denial of the votes of 17.4 million people to leave the EU.
“The divisions of the referendum need to be consigned to the past. Now is the time to…lead our country to a future of freedom, success, and prosperity.”
If we need to leave with no deal and negotiate a free trade agreement during the transition period, so be it.
Perhaps the Prime Minister will secure Parliament’s approval. But if she does not, the Conservative Party must choose a direction quickly.
Cowardice and lack of vision have brought us to this pass – facing all the costs and obligations of EU membership, but with no voice, no vote and no veto.
There is still time for adoption of a comprehensive free trade deal on offer from the EU and applied to the entire UK, which even now could provide a way forward.
Cox told the Cabinet that the EU’s admittance that the backstop can be temporary was a step forward. He is right, although the devil will be in the detail.
Some will ask “Trump versus China: where does the UK stand?” The answer will be: “Ask Brussels – as the UK isn’t allowed to have a trade policy of its own”.
Meanwhile, almost a third of replies support a trade-off over a longer transition and the backstop. Two-thirds oppose any transition extension.
We should not be tied to rules that often apply extreme versions of the precautionary principle that throttle new developments.