Barnier speaks a lot of sense here, and it gets to the heart of the oft-heard argument in the UK of "we want trade but nothing else". /1 theguardian.com/politics/2018/…
For those making the "trade and nothing else argument", trade is generally understood to mean trade in goods. Which is paradoxical, given the importance of services for the UK economy. /2
Anyone who knows anything about the single market is fully aware that attachment to the four freedoms (goods, services, capital, people) is not just because it is hard-wired into the DNA and identity of the European Union but also because of the inseparable links between them. /3
So, as Barnier rightly notes, it is not just a case of importing car parts to the UK and then exporting the cars when fully assembled but the services that go with them: from repairing and checking, customer services, marketing and sales. /4
Services of course depend on people moving across borders. And the movement of capital underpins all of this. So, "cherry picking" is resisted not to annoy or punish the UK, but because of the intense legal-political difficulties in unpicking all of this. /5
When the clock is ticking, per a timetable set by the UK when triggering Article 50, this comes back to the basic point that an inherently different UK-EU relationship must surely take as long to set up as bilateral relations with Norway, Switzerland, Turkey etc. /6
It is not "project fear" for Barnier or anyone else to point out what difficulties the UK will experience. Especially when it is based on the law that the UK helped to put in place. /END
