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Faisal Islam
@faisalislam
, 7 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
Barnier making point publicly UK Government has told him it now wants to revisit level playing field commitments (social, environmental, competition) made by May last year... this will lessen the ambition for a free trade agreement...
Consequences...

europarl.europa.eu/streaming?even…
Firstly - this has been in the air since Frost first visited in October - the implication is that it could affect the much vaunted March offer for tariff free-quota-free trade which explicitly referenced “insofar as” there are LPF commitments...

Secondly - if as some Cabinet ministers have said, they are trying to get a reference to “best free trade deal in the world” in to the political declaration - then rowing back on the LPFs will take this in the very opposite direction to that...
Third - “Labour MPs for a deal” caucus say want MORE level playing field commitments, such as were negotiated briefly between Lidington & Mcdonnell. But here official negotiators telling EU they want fewer than May.
How does this get the PM the Labour votes he’ll need for a deal?
Conversely will ERG MPs be reassured that Barnier has made public that Johnson’s approach and his negotiators asks is more Canada-style, less alignment with EU than May? /4
And importantly the ambition to loosen the May administration’s level playing field commitments for a future relationship have ”very profound implications” in Ireland, making backstop even more important - as Finance Minister @Paschald said in a speech on Monday: /5
All in all asking to change level playing field -

- decreases EU ambition/frictionlessness for EU-UK future deal eg March ‘18 offer
- Decreases likely support of Opposition MPs for a deal.
- Further cements Dublin’s attachment to a backstop.
- maybe helps with US trade deal/ERG
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Faisal Islam
@faisalislam
Quite the development this - NFU developing “fairness for farmers” campaigning videos against No Deal Brexit and calling for review of the final No Deal tariffs... (which we have been told were imminent at various points over past month) - think about interaction with an election
First up -NFU obviously believe these zero tariffs on competing imports to keep inflation down are still in play for review. Remember also told same re the refinery problem. Also issues around bioethanol, apparently.

But where is tariff schedule, just weeks before No Deal? /1
Retailers, producers, farmers, refiners etc - really need to know what the final tariffs are going to be. Plastering the nation with adverts imploring people to “get ready” for No Deal risk falling a little flat when this is one of the principal differences to get ready for /2
Read 5 tweets
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Faisal Islam
@faisalislam
letters appeared on gov.uk late last night:
1. Brexit Sec Barclay says “insufficient time to complete work” to plan no deal mitigations if left till last days of October
2. Asks for Commission to allow bilateral (eg UK-Fr etc) prep
3. Barnier says No - pass WA
Interesting open admission by Govt. on “insufficient time” though not wildly surprising. Having admitted that though, they surely cannot for example change by much the Yellowhammer assumptions on trade flow in time for Oct 31st...
Barnier’s reply: “We will not enter into any negotiations with the United Kingdom on these matters”... ie No Deal mitigations will be unilateral. this is perhaps the point at which “they need us more than we need them” is supposed to kick in.
NB this was sent before ydays talks..
Read 5 tweets
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Faisal Islam
@faisalislam
Dorset special needs school letter to parents saying it has bought a freezer to store extra food to deal with no Deal Brexit risks, increased non-perishable food stocks after the council published its no Deal Brexit risk register, and suggested contacting GPs over prescriptions:
This is after the local council published its Brexit risk register - including an earlier version of this document we obtained over summer, alongside many other council’s similar documents, many of which listed similar concerns dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/your-community…
Councils plans and identifications of these risks were in turn specifically requested by central Government as part of first stage Yellowhammer preparations for No Deal - here’s our story on school meals from last month:
Read 5 tweets

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Kendall P. Latimer
@klatimer_
Carolyn Strom walks toward the courthouse, heading up to Court of Appeal. The court is to decide if Strom’s Facebook post criticizing her grandfather's palliative care violated the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association guidelines. The hearing is underway.
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Stuart Budd 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 #UniteToRemain
@StuartBudd1
1/
 Johnson government go cookoo

Not content with negotiating a new #WithdrawlAgreement without the Backstop and paying any money, they now wish to remove #RegulatoryAlignment and diverge from EU standards, which is the basis for any FTA.

ft.com/content/512b7a…
2/
 Mr Johnson’s team this week told their EU counterparts they want to abandon prior commitments made by Theresa May to maintain a "level playing field" in areas including environment and social standards.

ft.com/content/512b7a…
3/
 "asking for a basic trade deal with the Union while refusing regulatory alignment and tearing up their level playing field commitments means the UK will find it very difficult to achieve an ambitious trade agreement with the EU"
Guy Verhofstadt
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Mehreen
@MehreenKhn
It's not just Boris's non-plans on backstop that is pushing UK to no-deal. Commission officials told EU27 today that Brits demanding three major changes to the accompanying political declaration text - but without any clarity about how to get them ft.com/content/227f72…
UK wants "best in class free trade deal" with the EU that gives Boris freedom to diverge from European standards. Brits now want very limited "level playing field" commitments compared to that forseen by May (social & env) - can hear alarm bells going off in Netherlands, France
Brits have also demanded changes to post-Brexit dispute settlement mechanism and defence relations but have given EU no clarification on what they want "despite requests" to do so.
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Nick Gutteridge
@nick_gutteridge
Pawel rightly points out there are issues with the SPS/mini-backstop. Impression is Member States would engage but by no means certain they'd sign it off. Concerns about smuggling, the integrity of the Single Market and the impact on the all-island economy would weigh heavily.
On smuggling, diplomats point out Britain's customs system is hardly trusted by the rest of the EU. Especially after it had to be ordered to repay 2.7bn euros by Brussels' anti-fraud office over a case involving cheap Chinese goods entering the Single Market through UK ports.
In terms of the Single Market, how does the EU stop countries (China especially) exploiting the Irish border as a back door for its exports? This concern has been heightened by the UK's intention to ditch Level Playing Field commitments and (maybe) diverge from EU standards.
Read 6 tweets
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Karl Whelan
@WhelanKarl
A medium-sized thread on the Irish government’s position on the backstop.
Irish public opinion is still supportive of the government’s position on Brexit but there is an increasing drumbeat of newspaper columnists suggesting they should back down in order to secure a withdrawal agreement deal with the UK.
The backstop is criticised in terms of “it is going to cause the thing it was supposed to prevent – a hard border”
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Martin Cooper
@mpc_1968
1/ A few clips from last week's @CommonsEUexit SC on level playing field provs (state aid, workers rights & env protections) in the WA. 'What is the diff between being bound by a ruling of the WTO dispute body & being bound by a ruling of the ECJ?' @hilarybennmp @GeorgePeretzQC
2/ @hilarybennmp asks what the future level playing field provisions (workers rights, environmental protections, state aid rules) might look like in any future EU_UK deal. @GeorgePeretzQC @CommonsEUexit
3/ @hilarybennmp : 'Is it fair to say that in just about any circumstances the EU is
going to require from the UK level playing field commitments in return for any kind of deal? Is that your assessment of what the position will be?' @GeorgePeretzQC & @LydgateEmily : 'Yes'
Read 10 tweets

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