Liam Fox says post-Brexit trade with EU will be “at least as free” as it is today
UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox argued in a speech in Manchester yesterday, “As members of the EU, we have played a huge role in ensuring that the single market remains open to trade, championing its expansion into a greater services and digital economy. We will continue to encourage this liberalisation as long as we are members of the EU and after our exit.” He also stressed that the UK “is a full and founding member of the WTO, though we have chosen to be represented by the EU in recent years. As we establish our independent position post-Brexit, we will carry the standard of free and open trade as a badge of honour.”
Answering questions after his speech, Fox noted, “The EU has a massive surplus in goods with the UK. Who does it harm more if we end up in a new tariff environment?”, and added, “It’s in everybody’s interests that, as we move forward, we have at least as free a trading environment as we have today. Everything else may not harm the politicians and institutions but it will harm the people of Europe, and it's the people of Europe who should be at the forefront of our thoughts during that period.”
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Jo Hawley, Director of trade and investment at the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong, has said that UK officials have held preliminary talks with China over a potential free trade deal post-Brexit.
Separately, UK Trade Minister Mark Price met South Korea’s Deputy Trade Minister Woo Tae-hee yesterday to discuss post-Brexit bilateral cooperation. According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, Woo suggested that the two countries launch unofficial trade talks in light of the fact that the EU-Korea free trade agreement will no longer apply to the UK once it formally leaves the EU.
Sources: Liam Fox’s speech, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Yonhap
Head of Germany’s leading business group says hard Brexit better than fudge
Markus Kerber, Director-General of the BDI, Germany’s leading business association, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “If British decision-makers look very hard at what it is that they want, and what it will be that they get, then there is no other option than the hard Brexit”, and added, “It is better to have a hard Brexit that works than to have a fudge in the middle that may have to be renegotiated and doesn’t politically work and you have uncertainty lingering on.”
Sources: The Financial Times, The Times
Austrian Finance Minister hopes UK-EU exit talks start “really soon”
Austrian Finance Minister Hans-Jörg Schelling told Reuters in an interview, “Britain has to deliver, not the EU…First of all, the most important step is to start the procedure by triggering Article 50 [the formal process for leaving the EU] which has to be presented by Great Britain, and I hope so really soon.”
He added, “It is not possible to get rights without obligations…If you want to have access to the single market you have to accept the four freedoms of the EU. The question is: how do you make flexibility in between this, because you have many countries that are not members of the EU like Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein – they have contracts with us.” He concluded, “It is not a solution to say: just let us wait [and see] what is the opinion of the EU and then we discuss this a little bit.”
Source: Reuters
Sadiq Khan hints at possible separate London work permits post-Brexit
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed that City Hall is working on a separate London work permit scheme for when the UK leaves the EU, after concerns were raised that there could be a mass exodus of highly skilled workers from the capital. He told Sky News, “We are talking to business leaders, businesses, business representatives to see what we can do to make sure London doesn’t lose out on the talent, the innovation, the partnership that has let us be the greatest city in the world…The good news is the Government gets it. The good news is in all the conversations I’ve had with members of the Government, from the Chancellor to the Brexit Secretary to the Foreign Secretary and others in Government, I think they get it.”
Meanwhile, according to polling by Demos and ComRes, a total 61% of Britons surveyed indicated that they wanted freedom of movement to continue with either no changes (20%) or some restrictions on who can come to the UK to work (41%). 39% of respondents wanted to adopt a points-based system or similar.
Sources: Evening Standard , The Times
UK insurers to seek regulatory changes after Brexit, but reject complete overhaul of EU rules
Huw Evans, chief executive of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), told the Financial Times, “There are certainly changes to Solvency II [EU rules on capital requirements for insurers] that could be made. There’s an opportunity to improve it in the UK” after Brexit. However, he added, “It makes no sense to tear up Solvency II completely and saddle the industry with hundreds of millions of pounds of un-implementation costs on top of the £4bn implementation costs.”
Source: The Financial Times
Nissan boss hints at seeking financial compensation for Brexit-related losses
Speaking in Paris yesterday, Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, hinted at plans to request financial compensation for any loss incurred due to Brexit as a condition for further investment in the UK, saying, “If there are tax barriers being established on cars, you have to have a commitment for carmakers who export to Europe that there is some kind of compensation.”
Meanwhile, the Press Association reports that the Council of Mortgage Lenders saw activity increase in August. Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), is quoted as saying, “What we’ve seen in our last survey in August is a more stable trend in activity – so we saw sales agreed stop falling and stabilise…We also saw buyer enquiries beginning to steady, having fallen for a couple of months. So that’s a signal that perhaps people are no longer getting more and more worried… and they think that there is perhaps a bit more opportunity.”
Separately, Reuters reports that market research firm GfK’s consumer confidence index, based on an online survey of 2,000 people, rose to -1 in September from -7 in August – meaning that it is now back on levels seen in the months before the June 23 EU referendum.
Sources: Reuters, The Press Association
New research highlights continued poor targeting of EU farm subsidies
According to new research by Greenpeace, at least one in five of the top 100 recipients of EU subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the UK last year were farm businesses owned or controlled by members of aristocratic families – including the Queen. Greenpeace also stressed that 16 of the top 100 recipients of CAP funds in the UK are farm businesses owned or controlled by individuals or families who featured on the 2016 Sunday Times Rich List – receiving in total over £13m of EU farm subsidies.
Source: The Press Association
Dutch opinion on the EU becomes more favourable
According to a new survey by the Dutch Institute for Social Research (SCP), 46% of Dutch think EU membership is “a good thing” – compared to 39% earlier this year. Meanwhile, 50% of respondents said they are against the Netherlands leaving the EU, up from 43% in the previous survey, while 20% want to see their country leave the EU. The next Dutch general election is due to take place by March 2017, and the anti-EU Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders has been topping opinion polls so far.
Source: De Volkskrant
Juppé consolidates support on left and right as Hollande sinks
A new TNS Sofres poll for Le Figaro Magazine sees Alain Juppé, a former French Prime Minister and a potential centre-right nominee for the 2017 presidential election, consolidating support among both centre-right and centre-left voters. Compared to last month, Juppé has climbed four points to 62% confidence among supporters of the centre-right Les Républicains party, of which he is a member, and nine points to 47% among supporters of the Socialist Party. This compares to a fall of five points for French President François Hollande to 41% among supporters of his own party – which leaves him with a total of 13% confidence across all respondents.
Source: Le Figaro
EU takes Germany to court over road toll system
The European Commission announced yesterday that it will refer Germany to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its plans to charge foreign cars for using German motorways, which the Commission argues does not comply with EU rules on “non-discrimination based on nationality and the free movement of goods and services.” Despite numerous exchanges with German authorities since 2014, the Commission decided to start legal proceedings as it believes its concerns have not been addressed.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
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