Johnson: “EU should be sensible and give UK a deal similar to Canada’s”
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The EU should be “sensible” and give the U.K. a Brexit deal of the sort it gave to Canada, the U.K.’s prime minister said Friday, stressing Britain is ready for any Brexit scenario at the end of the year.
Speaking to Sky News, Boris Johnson said the public needed to understand the changes coming after the Brexit transition ends on December 31 and the U.K. severs its ties with the EU, but stressed Britain “will get through this.”
The future relationship negotiations have hit a deadlock as neither the EU nor the U.K. want to give in on state aid or fisheries — the two biggest sticking points preventing them from signing a deal.
POLITICO reports that Johnson,In a message seemingly targeted at his counterparts in the EU, said: “It’s absolutely vital that our partners understand that the U.K. is going to do what we need to do. If we have to have an Australia-style deal, an Australia-style solution, then that is what we will achieve, and we will prosper mightily one way or the other.”
He was also reported saying “the EU could “be sensible and give us a Canada-style solution, which after all they’ve given Canada, and I hope, very much hope, that they will, but we’re ready for either eventuality.”
The EU CANADA Deal
The EU’s agreement with Canada is called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or Ceta for short.
Ceta gets rid of most, but not all, tariffs (that’s taxes on imports) on goods traded between the EU and Canada. Tariffs remain on poultry, meat and eggs.
It also increases quotas (that’s the amount of a product that can be exported without extra charges) but does not get rid of them altogether. For example, quotas on EU cheese exports to Canada increase from 18,500 tonnes to 31,972 tonnes a year.
It does little for the trade in services and in particular almost nothing for the trade in financial services, which is very important for the UK economy.
Ceta protects EU “geographical indications”, meaning for example that you can only make Parma ham in Italy and camembert cheese in France, and Canada can’t import something that calls itself camembert from any other country.
They have also agreed to open up government contracts to each other, so Canadian companies could bid to build French railways, for example.
There is also co-operation between the two countries on standards, so a piece of equipment made in an EU country can go through all its safety and quality checks there, without needing to have them repeated in Canada – and vice versa.
Ceta also allows professional qualifications to be recognised both in Canada and the EU, making it easier, for example, for architects or accountants to work in both places.
And it aligns Canadian rules in some areas of copyright and patents with those of the EU.
