In short, if true. Not win. Multilateral or diagonal cumulation is what’s needed, esp for key Japanese exporters. Bilateral ie UK-EU taken for granted in FTA.
key test of electric car negotiation is - will UK electric cars/ batteries be guaranteed tariff free access to EU?
German EU Presidency spokesman announces that the EU27 ambassadors waiting to hear the Brexit deal, & start process of provisional application, have now been sent home....
Had a quick look at the 1246 page legal text, obtained by my BBC colleagues... first impressions - goes way beyond Canada-style deal, eg in terms of the “rebalancing clause” on future divergence... this will detain us for days/ weeks... first thoughts:
First it’s impressive long & detailed. But why so long if tariffs/quotas are zero?
length is about complicated institutional architecture whilst not compelling alignment, designed to create disincentives for divergence.
- expect these mechanisms to be used. They will matter
So it’s zero tariff and zero quota *for now*... but there are a number of levers or switches in the agreement to turn off those tariff advantages, should one side be deemed to be acting “unfairly”.
A political win with an upfront economic cost, not now compounded by tariffs... but the PM is about to find out precisely what a “non-tariff barrier” is, both within Europe, and within the UK:
EU to implement six year phase in of requirement for electric cars to have a maximum of 45% content from outside Europe. will go 60%-55%-45%.
UK wanted 70%. EU carmakers backed.
Compromise, but could be tight for some manufacturers..
That is to say, if battery production is not in Europe (rather than Asia) or expensive hybrid systems shipped from Japan... there might be a challenge to qualify for tariff free export... we dont have the numbers on %age local content because never been required before now...
On Brexit, things close, as you’ve heard, waiting apparently on a PM:VDL call, but member states haven’t been briefed on the whole deal yet..
As they would, senior European source saying “big concessions from the UK on fish”. We’ll know when we see, but sign EU27 in sales mode.
Clearly both sides will say other has compromised more - only way to tell is when the detail is published which even if deal comes tonight, we won’t get till tomorrow - as I reported last week text was 800 pages and 1000 further in annexes etc, though Tony C says it’s now 2000
To be clear - we can only tell who compromised more than just “both sides” when we see the text... the informational value I take from sources such as this making claims like this though, is that UK-EU deal is very close, though member states with vetos yet to see it in round...
French Europe minister there is defending EU response saying Uk is paying 1.5 to 2 times more for vaccines. Only number we have is the NAO one of £2.9bn for 267m courses of 5 diff vaccines, 914m upfront....
Could do quite an interesting piece of algebra to backwards engineer how much uk has paid for each vaccine ...
And compare with the list that was tweeted by the Belgian minister...