Brexiteers including Jacob Rees-Mogg claim their new proposal is SupercalifragilisticBREXpialidocious
THERESA May can get a “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” trade deal with the EU - but only if she toughens up her negotiating approach, leading Brexiteers warned yesterday.
Turning the screw on the PM, David Davis and Jacob Rees-Mogg endorsed a rival blueprint for a “clean break” from Brussels.
This would allow Britain to prioritise its focus on securing major new free trade deals with the likes of the US that voters were promised in the referendum, they said.
And the Brexiteers stepped up their attack on Mrs May for making Britain a “supplicant” to the EU in Brexit talks with her current Chequers plan, which they said would make a US free trade deal all-but impossible.
The Tory MPs spoke alongside ex-Northern Ireland Secretary and ex-Labour MP and Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart to announce the launch of an alternative Brexit plan published by the Institute of Economic Affairs in Whitehall yesterday.
The lengthy report called on ministers to seek a “basic” free trade agreement for goods and pursue “regulatory freedom and trade independence” to allow Britain to strike new free trade deals immediately.
The alternative Plan A+ says grasping the opportunities of Brexit must be made the top priority - instead of being a “damage limitation exercise”.
It has been compared to the kind of comprehensive free trade deal Canada has struck with the EU but Mr Rees-Mogg said the name didn’t matter - and instead rested on the PM changing her approach. He also claimed the EU had already offered this more basic approach to a new trade deal.
Speaking at the alternative plan’s launch, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “So much of what we hear about these negotiations has been about managing decline, has been about how you have the least bad Brexit, this is about how you can have a fantastic Brexit that sets us up for the next generation and ensures our prosperity.
“This has been offered to us by the Commission, they have offered us the best trade deal they have ever done with any country ever in the world, so if you want to call it Canada plus, or super Canada or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Canada, that is what is being aimed and its being offered.”
But the plan was overshadowed by a row over why Boris Johnson didn’t turn up at the launch. He was said to have changed his mind at the last minute.
Instead he tweeted his support of the alternative plan with another dig at Mrs May.
Referring to her speech on Friday calling for the EU to show Britain “respect,” Mr Johnson said of the IEA report: “This is a plan the EU would understand and respect - delivering prosperity for the UK and our European partners. I’ve no doubt it would unite MPs and the country.”
But yesterday No10 poured scorn on the plans.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “In relation to ‘Canada plus’, no EU third country free trade agreement has ever led to a reduction in barriers to the extent that no hard border is needed, and there is no global precedent for an infrastructure-free border without substantial regulatory and customs alignment.”
Referring to the EU free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada, known as CETA, Mrs May’s spokesman said: “CETA still requires third country customs controls, rules of origin requirements, risk and intelligence-led border checks.
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“Given a standard free trade agreement could not prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, the EU’s position is that their proposed Northern Ireland protocol would come into effect.
“So, the FTA would only apply to the Great Britain-EU relationship, with Northern Ireland effectively remaining in parts of the single market and customs union.
“The PM has repeatedly set out that we must protect the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom as a whole.”
HOW PLAN A+ COMPARES WITH CHEQUERS
Plan A+
- The UK should seek a "basic" free trade agreement for goods with the EU and seek “regulatory freedom and trade independence”.
- Unilaterally lower tariffs to zero and get rid of quotas on all products the UK doesn’t produce
- Restore complete sovereignty over British waters in fisheries policy
- Open simultaneous discussions on securing new long-term free trade deals with America, China and India to put pressure on the EU to give us a good deal.
- Prevent a "hard border" in Northern Ireland by having "cooperation mechanisms" to enable trade "formalities" to be completed away from the border
- Align food and animal health regimes in Ulster with the EU – and introduce a new law to make it illegal to travel across the border with non-compliant goods
- Replace free movement with an "efficient and balanced framework" for workers from the EU and the rest of the world, which "recognises the economic and social benefits and costs of immigration"
- Keep parts of the withdrawal agreement which have already been agreed, such as citizens' rights, the £39 billion divorce bill and the 21-month transition period after the UK leaves in March 2019
Chequers
- “Common rulebook” would keep British producers bound by EU rules on goods - including farmers.
- Parliament would oversee these rules - but deciding not to abide by them would have “consequences”.
- UK-EU “Joint Committee” to oversee and rule on disputes but these would be settled based on more than 40 years of EU laws.
- Britain to effectively stay in the EU’s customs union - described as a “combined customs territory” - to avoid hard border with Ireland.
- Britain to be responsible for collecting EU tariffs and implementing EU trade policy for goods passing through the UK.
- Britain to leave EU rules for services - with banks losing crucial EU passporting rights that allows them to sell their services across Europe.
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