Brexit Deal - one of the easiest in human history?

[kellerist]

Asked about a possible trade deal with Taiwan, Janet Yellen said president-elect Joe Biden “has been clear that he will not sign any new free trade agreements before the US makes major investments in American workers and our infrastructure”, adding: “Our economic recovery at home must be our top priority.”

Although she did not mention the UK specifically, Ms Yellen’s comments will likely stoke fears that Britain will struggle to secure a quick trade deal with the Biden administration.
Her remarks come just days after Lord Kim Darroch said the UK would be “lucky” to strike a trade deal with the US over the next four years.

[kellerist]

Please, help me out here, but isn’t he they guy who said he don’t want to live in a “German Europe”?

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -passports

[Fretless]

As someone who left Thatcher's dole-queue ridden Britain in 1990, things are starting to look oddly familiar.

Just wait for the next wave of Brits coming to Europe hoping for work.

Anyone remember 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'?



Of course, only now they will all need visas.

[savvypaul]

As someone who left Thatcher's dole-queue ridden Britain in 1990, things are starting to look oddly familiar.

Just wait for the next wave of Brits coming to Europe hoping for work.

Anyone remember 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'?



Of course, only now they will all need visas.

The Auf Wiedersehen lads will have needed work visas - it was pre 1992. An agent in the UK would take care of all the red tape, prior to departure.

There will be lots more jobs in red tape, very soon.

[Fretless]

Right about the visas back then. I had to report to the immigation office at a nearby police station every 6 months.

Eventually I asked the British Consulate if this was still necessary and they replied 'officially, yes - but they can't deport you if you don't show up.'. So I stopped going.

[CN211276]

The best way to do trade with Europe? Stay in Europe. You could not make this up

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... shop-in-eu

[Fretless]

Just one step short of reapplying for EU membership.

[CN211276]

The only thing we will be exporting is jobs.

[Fretless]

From that Guardian article:

This will mean laying off a small number of staff here and taking on people in the Netherlands.

Ah well, every cloud has a silver lining.

[slinger]

This shit just keeps on getting better and better.

Brexit deal gives EU right to cut off energy supplies if UK tries to ‘take back control’ of fishing in 2026
‘No coincidence’ that both deals are up for renewal at the same time, says EU source

Britain faces more expensive electricity and occasional black-outs if it refuses to allow EU fishing boats into its waters after 2026, it has emerged.

The small print of the post-Brexit trade deal, which is before Parliament today and due to pass tonight, hands an on-off switch for part of the UK power market to the EU.

The EU-UK trade deal enshrines a link between continued EU access to British waters and continued UK frictionless access to the EU electrical grid and gas network.

This connection has been largely overlooked since the deal was signed on Christmas Eve. It was mentioned, and brushed aside, in Tuesday’s statement by the pro-Brexit European Research Group, which claimed that the deal respected UK sovereignty.

The European Union has, in effect, been given strong leverage to ensure that EU fishing boats have access to the UK 200-mile exclusive economic zone beyond the five and a half years granted by the deal.

This contradicts several statements by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the UK will have no limits- other than scientific – on its “theoretical” access to fish in British waters after 2026.

Dates not words
The fisheries-energy link is spelled out in dates, not words. The fisheries part of the agreement grants EU boats continued access with a 25 per cent cut in quotas over five and a half years until 30 June 2026.

After that there will be “annual negotiations” The treaty text states, however, that the pattern of 2026 EU quotas in UK waters should “normally continue” indefinitely.

The energy part of the agreement allows the UK virtually unchanged access to the continental electricity and gas markets. But that expires on exactly the same date as the fish deal – 30 June 2026. After that, there will also be “annual negotiations”.

A senior EU source says this is no coincidence. The link by date is “more than implicit”, the source said. The energy deal “ends by default” unless a decision is taken by both sides to extend it.

In other words, if the UK bans, or severely restricts, EU boats in the British 200-mile zone from 30 June 2026, easy access to EU energy will also end.

Britain is a net importer of electricity from the EU through cables to France, the Netherlands and Belgium. About 7 per cent of Britain’s total electricity demand is supplied by bidding for surplus power in the European grid. The electricity is then fed into the UK grid through the underwater cables.

Since European prices are generally below UK prices, this arrangement keeps down the cost of power in Britain. Britain also imports some European gas.

Bloomberg reported in November: “Without a (UK-EU energy) deal, costs for British consumers could go up by £2bn (a year).”

The UK could “lose 7 per cent of its electricity supply and would struggle to find an easy replacement. It could even lead to rolling blackouts at times of peak demand.”

EU leverage
It was widely reported in the final weeks of the post-Brexit negotiations that the EU was using the energy market as leverage on Britain to obtain a better deal on fishing quotas and access. It now turns out that this leverage is permanently enshrined in the deal signed by Boris Johnson.

The deal includes other potential penalties – tariffs on British fish exports and even tariffs on other British goods – if the UK tries to cut EU fisheries access from June 2026.

But a de facto power to switch off some lights in Britain and increase British electricity bills will be a much stronger weapon for the EU in 2026.

June 2026 will be exactly a decade after the Brexit referendum.

The ERG has noticed this fish-electricity link but played it down in its statement last night.

“EU leverage may also include termination of the energy title”, the ERG statement said. But it went on to suggest that this would not necessarily prove to be a problem if a future UK government stood firm.

SOURCE

This, of course, is the sort of thing that happens when you rush a massive undertaking like Johnson's more-shite-by-the-minute trade deal through parliament, making sure that nobody has the time to scrutinize it properly first.