Hopes Are Rising For No-Deal Brexit As Europe Dithers By Stephen MacLean
https://www.nysun.com/foreign/hopes-are-rising-for-no-deal-brexit-as-europe/91198/
With weeks before the United Kingdom meets its self-imposed deadline to reach a midsummer trade deal with the European Union, Britain is on course for a “clean break” Brexit. “UK Close to Abandoning Brexit-EU Deal, Will Likely Leave Bloc Fully in December,” booms Breitbart London. “No deal Brexit likely,” begins a headline in the Express. “EU can’t even agree with themselves!” concludes a headline in the EuroWeekly.
It’s unlikely, though, that purist Brexiteers will be dancing in the streets just yet — never mind that government restrictions to prevent spreading the coronavirus curtail such public celebrations. Once bitten, twice shy. Prime Minister Theresa May and her supplicatory approach to Brussels disabused freedom-loving Conservatives that their party was with them. Even Boris Johnson, with better bonafides than Mrs. May on the Brexit file, has been known to wobble on the imperative of independence.
Even now, with Brexit the law of the land, our breath is bated. Britain, after all, remains under EU jurisdiction until the end of the year — paying membership dues and subject to the European Court of Justice until either a UK-EU trade deal is inked or the UK severs all links and trades with the EU according to World Trade Organization rules.
Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel. While the British negotiating team assembled following the 2016 referendum had a chequered reputation (seemingly taking its orders from Brussels and laying down the law to London), the current contingent is less in thrall to EU bureaucrats. Thus the chances are waxing for a “clean break.”
UK negotiator Oliver Lewis refuses to be played and is not afraid to speak out for his country’s sovereign rights, several times clashing with his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier. Likewise, Dominic Cummings, the PM’s principal advisor deep in Downing Street, cannot be cowed. At least not on the Brexit file. Mr. Cummings was a chief strategist for the successful “Vote Leave” campaign and has lost none of his combative spirit.
Brexiteers are fortunate, too, in the calibre of their EU counterparts at the negotiating table. Rather than add water to their wine and compromise on a bilateral agreement that could beguile Mr. Johnson into accepting a “soft” Brexit, EU officials double down, instead. They are demanding status quo access to UK territorial fishing waters when Britain wants to set annual quotas. The European Court of Justice is another sticking point: Brussels wants the ECJ as arbiter in disputes, while Britain wants an impartial third party to act as referee.
Most galling is the EU stipulation for a “level playing field,” which would block Britain from setting its own regulatory, tax, and trade policy but rather would conform to continental standards. Such a requirement would stifle any notion of British self-government and restrict its freedom when setting out to make bilateral trade deals with the world. President Trump has warned that such pre-conditions would probably make any trade deal with America impossible.
Coming to resolution on the EU file and realizing its ultimate futility clears the decks for Britain to refocus its efforts on bilateral trade deals with the world. Australia, New Zealand, and Japan are eager to trade with the UK, as well as pro-Brexit America. What a needful tonic to turning the page on the coronavirus and beginning a new chapter for entrepreneurial opportunity and economic freedom.
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Mr. MacLean, a freelancer based in Nova Scotia, writes the Brexit Diary for The New York Sun.
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