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Time pressure on Brexit negotiations increasing
LONDON, UK -- Talks around a number of aspects of Brexit -- including trade arrangements and quota setting -- need to be accelerated if the UK is to be ready on time, several speakers at a Brexit forum have noted.
The current timeline for Brexit when it comes to fisheries will see the UK leave the EU on March 29, 2019. An implementation period has been agreed, lasting until Dec. 31, 2020.
During this period the UK will continue to apply EU law, although special arrangements for setting quotas have been agreed – see the image below.
“The UK will be looking to join NEAFC [North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission] and other RFMOs [regional fisheries management organizations] as an independent coastal state,” said Shanker Singham, director of the international trade and competition unit of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
“Working with Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands will be the priorities. It's worth noting the implementation period relies on the withdrawal agreement, and there's the possibility – however slim – that that could fall through,” he warned.
The draft withdrawal agreement was issued by the UK government on March 19 2018 and includes agreed legal text for the implementation period, citizens’ rights, and the financial settlement. The UK and the EU negotiating teams aim to finalize the entire withdrawal agreement by October 2018.
“We do think that some negotiations are behind, and need to be accelerated, with that in mind,” Singham added. “As an exiting member of the EU, the UK has rights, and it must be allowed to begin negotiations so that it can withdraw without damaging itself. So it does have the authority to start those negotiations now."
Andrew Kuyk, leader of the UK Seafood Industry Alliance, agreed that negotiations are not progressing quickly enough, also when it comes to trade.
“We do think 'free and frictionless trade' is the ideal we need to aim for, but we've had two years of agreeing that that's the case, and no discernible progress,” he said. “This lack of movement is becoming very pressing. When you think of the trade of frozen seafood especially, contracts on that can extend 18 months into the future – we need some clarity on this.”
Singham suggested that the chapter on regulatory alignment in the already-overdue UK government white paper on fisheries and Brexit will be the most important one, as it will be “the toughest to work through”.
“It's vital we start talking to the EU now about how trade will be managed between it and the UK. The UK can start that off, by getting text on the table,” he said.
Iceland's ambassador to the UK, Stefan Haukur Johanneson, noted there were concerns for his country that, even if the UK sorts out its sanitary and phytosanitary standards with the EU, there will be additional complications in the important trade route by which Iceland sells to the continent, via the UK.
Looming trade war benefits nobody
More generally on trade, Singham said the Institute of Economic Affairs feels UK consumers and businesses will benefit from a gradual liberalization of import tariffs on goods from developing countries.
The UK mostly exports its catches to the EU, while it consumes large quantities of seafood from outside of the EU, such as tuna and farmed shrimp. Hence, cutting import tariffs will both help businesses secure those raw materials and aid the developing nations, he said.
As Undercurrent News has previously reported, one model the UK could look to emulate is Norway's complex set of trade relations with the EU (which could pose issues for the UK's salmon smokers).
When the UK leaves the EU, it and Norway will have to renegotiate their own trade deals, noted Simen Svenheim, counselor for trade with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London.
Autonomous tariff quotas – under which the EU brings in raw materials for processing – will also need to be arranged by the UK.
Svenheim said that from Norway's perspective, there is the risk that competitors in other countries gain better market access to the UK through bilateral free trade agreements.
He also noted “this looming trade war we seem to be approaching benefits nobody,” warning of the use of anti-dumping and other trade measures for protectionist reasons.
Länk: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/06/13/time-pressure-on-brexit-negotiations-increasing/