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, 4 tweets, 1 min read
France has said “there can be no assumptions” about a free-trade agreement with the UK after Brexit.

A French diplomat was said to have made a forceful intervention in the latest Brexit meeting between EU diplomats with European commission this morning.
France, worried about Singapore on Thames, has stressed there is "no automaticity" when it comes to FTAs. All case-by-case.

Commission feels now knows what UK wants from future trading relationship. While gov of “best in class FTA”, commission calls it “a basic FTA”.
There have been very little discussions of the level-playing field in recent talks with Frost, but this would need to move rapidly up the agenda if a deal is in the offing.
Brexit negotiations are in stasis today. No face-to-face talks between David Frost and European commission.

Michel Barnier will meet Stephen Barclay for lunch on Thursday - one day ahead of EU’s semi-official Friday deadline.
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More from @JenniferMerode see all

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Jennifer Rankin
@JenniferMerode
Boris Johnson talked about his Brussels school years when he met EU leaders today. He also told them the UK had always been half in/half out.

The meeting took around 25 minutes.
theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
His main message was that he could get the votes in parliament.
Exuded confidence and ready to answer EU27 questions about the Benn Act

But EU leaders are not convinced. They just don't know, but didn't discuss extension in detail.
Hat tip @GuardianHeather we know that one of the last hurdles to the EU-UK deal was.... a VAT derogation for sanitary products.

David Cameron fought a similar battle in 2016, bringing the issue to European council.
Read 3 tweets
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Jennifer Rankin
@JenniferMerode
Barely four hours to go until a(nother) Brexit crunch summit and EU member states have not seen any legal text.

"Maybe we will have a deal, or maybe not," says senior EU official, who adds that when Brexit is on the agenda "we should expect the unexpected"
Lack of legal text will be a problem for EU leaders. EU officials will want to pore over the details before leaders sign anything off. "This is an ancient tradition and we are not ready to change it," says source.
EU in the dark about Westminster process.

Source: "We were told in 2018 by the UK government that the ratification takes six months; In the beginning of 2019 we were told it takes six weeks and the latest is that a few days is more than enough. So we will see."
Read 5 tweets
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Jennifer Rankin
@JenniferMerode
Michel Barnier told EU27 ambassadors important progress had been made on Brexit, but two sides not there yet.

Boris Johnson has made three big concessions to make this possible, but EU fears parliament could still block. EU27 have not seen the text. Time is running out.
1.
Concession No1. (most surprising)
The Level Playing Field is back. Boris Johnson has agreed that the UK must be in line with EU norms on climate, environment and workers’ rights for a Free Trade Agreement.
2.
Michel Barnier has always said UK’s proximity and size means LFP was much more important than distant countries such as Canada and Korea. EU diplomats had fretted about Singapore on Thames. Tonight MB told them he had guarantees for fair competition for an FTA
3.
Read 12 tweets

Related threads

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Bruno Waterfield
@BrunoBrussels
#Brexit
EU now see G7 as moment “there will be noise” on Brexit as Johnson holds talks with Juncker/Macron/Merkel/Conte
From Frost meeting last week it was clear UK does not have a plan for new talks
“No deal appears to be UK government’s central scenario,” said senior official
One ambassador said, “there is no desire to negotiate at all,”
UK asking for new EU mandate
“Will [EU] change the mandate? No. Change to what? What is the UK mandate ? There is not one,” said senior official
Frost also admitted that even without the backstop, the ERG could well block a deal
“Even if EU gave up the backstop there is no alternative”
Read 10 tweets
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Peter Wilding
@eurorealist
1. Am I the only one infuriated with the view that if @theresa_may and @jeremycorbyn agree a #brexit #customsunion then all is fine. This ignores the fact that it is leaving the #singlemarket that is the killer for business making, importing or exporting products. Why? A thread..
2/ Much of the commercial debate around #Brexit has focused on whether we stay in the #CustomsUnion or not. That is because this is the current battle between #Conservatives and #Labour. If Labour prevailed, and the UK remains in a Customs Union, then the tariff issue dies
3/ However, the much bigger problem relates to the #SingleMarket. Neither main party wants to stay in the Single Market because you can’t have free movement of goods, services and capital without accepting the same for people. But abandoning the single market means...
Read 16 tweets
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Mark Stone
@Stone_SkyNews
Ahead of @theresa_may’s latest visit to Brussels, where are we with #Brexit?!

A not-so-short thread which I hope simplifies a seemingly never-ending process but one which could have an abrupt end in less than 40 days. /1
Some context first: The key problem is the backstop - the Irish Protocol to us its proper name

It’s a section of the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) - a 585-page legal text which, together with a shorter Political Declaration (PD), forms the divorce treaty between UK & the EU. /2
The two texts - the WA & the PD - were the consequence of nearly two years of negotiations.

They were finalised + agreed by both the UK government (@10DowningStreet) and the EU (@EU_Commission) late last year. /3

(Skip to tweet 10 in the thread if you know this background!)
Read 25 tweets
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David M. Herszenhorn
@herszenhorn
Amid reports that #UK PM @theresa_may hopes to renegotiate the "backstop" provision on the Northern Ireland border, let's recall that she already made clear what she wants in her letter to #EU leaders before disastrously losing the #Brexit Withdrawal Treaty ratification vote. 1/
"This could be mitigated by changes to the backstop itself," she wrote to @eucopresident & @JunckerEU "Proposals for a way in which the UK could choose to exit the backstop unilaterally were it ever to come into force, or for a hard time limit... 2/
on the duration of the usage of the backstop, have been raised and discussed in Parliament. We have also raised them previously in negotiations." So there are her proposals, i.e. the EU should basically just cave on backstop in face of House of Commons defeat. But but but ... 3/
Read 17 tweets
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Josh De Lyon
@joshdelyon
FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND BREXIT (thread):

Membership of the EU Customs Union prevents countries from agreeing their own trade agreements. Instead, the EU negotiates trade agreements on behalf of its member countries, which must be ratified by each state. /1
If the UK leaves the Customs Union, it will be free to negotiate its own trade agreements.

A number of studies have estimated the gains from trade agreements with third countries. The expected effects are small relative to the fall in trade from leaving the EU. /2
The Government analysis leaked by @BuzzFeedUK predicts that a new trade deal with USA would add 0.2% to long run GDP compared with a Brexit cost to GDP of up to 8%.

A @CEP_LSE paper by @swatdhingraLSE @johnvanreenen & co-authors finds similar results cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/… /3
Read 10 tweets
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tony nog #FBPE
@tony_nog
1) Thread: #Brexit supporters -
40 minutes of your time

Brexit supporters out on Twitter, obviously many of us are now entrenched on either side, but perhaps, 40 minutes of your time will convince you that Brexit needs to be stopped.

Here goes:
2) firstly, take yourself back to this time. Boris Johnson in typical fashion selling an impossible consequence free #Brexit

No changes, no impacts, everything we wanted in a bespoke free trade agreement. This was the Vote Leave message.

telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/2…
3) no one from Vote Leave said it would be hard, or tricky, or drawn out.

Remember this from Farage in the European parliament
"No deal would be far worse for you than for us"

The EU would give us the deal we wanted, it was that simple

Read 15 tweets

Trending hashtags

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