Brexiters still hoping the EU will somehow grant the post-Brexit UK special exemptions from its common regulations governing foreign trade are in for more disappointment, warns FT columnist Wolfgang Münchau. That rules out the possibility of a “Canada-style” trade deal which Brexiters hope would lower tariffs between the UK and EU while leaving the UK free to pursue its own trade deals elsewhere.
- There are a number of reasons the EU won’t give the UK the same deal as Canada, but most important is the UK’s size and proximity to the EU. That means the UK could undercut its European neighbors far more easily than Canada could in areas like labor, services, agriculture, and so on (in fact, Europeans are already concerned about Canadian agriculture, making it even less likely the UK will get a similar deal).
- There’s also the collective aspect of any future deal: every member of the EU has to ratify a trade deal, and each one will naturally seek to protect its own domestic industries from UK competitors.
- More generally, the EU is concerned above all with maintaining the cohesion of its remaining membership. Giving the UK a sweetheart deal post-Brexit, by allowing to pick and choose which regulations to retain, would only encourage other wavering members to consider their own exits — or almost as bad, give them leverage to demand opt-outs backed by the threat of exiting.
