Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that he would rip up a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union if it would bind the United Kingdom to “onerous commitments” insisted by Brussels.
Downing Street has heated up the rhetoric and has accused the EU of trying to keep the UK shackled to its rules and regulations despite the British people voting to sever ties with the political aspect’s bloc.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said: “The Political Declaration was agreed alongside the Withdrawal Agreement and sets out aspirations and parameters for the upcoming negotiations on the future relationship.
“The Political Declaration was clear that this would be based on an FTA [free trade agreement]. The EU’s mandate itself moves away from what was set out in the Political Declaration.”
The PM also warned Brussels he will never surrender Britain’s fishing grounds to the EU.
In the EU’s new ‘negotiating mandate’ yesterday, they made a series of demands which were immediately rejected by Downing Street.
These included a requirement for the UK to continue following Brussels rules, a ban on the UK negotiating a US trade deal that allowed in chlorinated chicken, and an insistence that EU fishing boats should retain their existing quotas in British waters.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said: “Fisheries is part of a package as regards our trade relations, which are to be discussed, and that package is one you can’t break up. There will be no ambiguity at all around that.
“The trade agreement will be associated with a fisheries agreement and an agreement about a level playing field or there won’t be any agreement at all.”
However, Downing Street said the PM would never sacrifice British fishing waters and suggested that access for EU trawlers would have to be negotiated separately from trade.
The PM’s official spokesman said: “The UK did not vote twice to take back control of its fishing waters only to give that control up again. It doesn’t matter what the EU puts in its negotiating mandate as we will become an independent coastal state at the end of this year.
“This does not need to be negotiated, nor will it be. Any access by non-UK vessels to fish in UK waters will be for us to determine.”
No 10 also rejected the EU’s demand that Britain signs up to a ‘level playing field’ in which the UK agrees to abide by EU rules on issues like state aid and workers’ rights.
The PM’s spokesman rejected this notion saying: “We have been very clear on our commitment to discuss open and fair competition as part of negotiations, but we will not accept any demands for the UK to follow EU rules, just as we would not expect the EU to accept UK laws.
“We do not agree that an open trading relationship based on a free-trade agreement requires extensive level playing field commitments.”
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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