In a thread from Autumn I pointed out how the UK & EU had deleted detailed Level Playing Field from the legally binding withdrawal agreement and put them in the non binding declaration ... EU negotiation document brings all of this and more on climate change back again...
EU today also reinserted word “adequate” into description of arbitration mechanism on level playing field. In leaked UK document, change in language to “appropriate” was hailed as a negotiation win, as it meant should be able to resist binding arbitration
The key question - will the level playing field commitments actually be enforceable - they aren’t for EU-Japan and EU-Canada - UK wants same treatment, EU want a form of binding arbitration “including appropriate remedies” (also new language)
This is the crux of what the UK claims is the EU rowing back on Autumn agreement. Others saw this quite differently, that the EU kicked the can on tougher level playing field arrangements (than Jp or Can) into the second phase, always with intention of reintroducing them...
this is now going to be the subject of mutual negotiating power.
So Government in turn now focusing on saying that No Trade Deal would be fine and we are almost back to where we were in October, albeit with legal Brexit having occurred and the billions paid.
So Government in turn now focusing on saying that No Trade Deal would be fine and we are almost back to where we were in October, albeit with legal Brexit having occurred and the billions paid.
