Potemkin wrote:It's good to see that you, too, have joined the ranks of the accelerationists, Atlantis.
You read me wrong Pot. I'm not talking about creative destruction. Failing the dissolution of the United Kingdom, Corbyn is the best bet for dealing the death blow to imperialism. Corbyn, like Tsipras, like Le Pen and all the rest of the motley crowd will in due course be tamed by the civilizing force of the great European Union.
Michel Barnier: Financial services excluded from Brexit trade deal EU chief negotiator says no existing EU trade deal includes financial services.The EU will not do a post-Brexit trade with the U.K. that includes financial services, its chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told a group of European newspapers.
Barnier said that the loss of access for the City of London was a consequence of the U.K.’s decision to leave the EU single market. “There is no place [for financial services]. There is not a single trade agreement that is open to financial services. It doesn’t exist,” Barnier told the Guardian.
“[It is the consequence of] the red lines that the British have chosen themselves. In leaving the single market, they lose the financial services passport.”
The U.K.’s Brexit Secretary David Davis has said that he is seeking a “Canada plus plus plus” trade deal including services which make up the bulk of the U.K. economy.
Barnier has previously said that a full trade deal will be impossible to strike before the U.K.’s exit date of March 2019. But in the interview, he acknowledged it would be possible to hammer out a deal in a subsequent two-year transition period. But he said that all 35 EU national and regional parliaments will have to ratify it. He also said that the U.K. can negotiate its own trade agreements during the proposed two-year transition period — but will have to wait until the period is over before the agreements can come into force.
Barnier also said that the U.K. must follow EU rules during the proposed transition period, even new laws passed after March 2019, when the U.K. formally leaves the EU.
Asked about Barnier’s interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Irish ambassador to the U.K. Adrian O’Neill said: “Mr Barnier is the chief EU negotiator and what he says I think has to be listened to with great attention and care.” He said Ireland wanted the “closest relationship possible” with the U.K. after Brexit but would not elaborate on what they entailed.
Earlier, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May appeared to dismiss Barnier’s assessment that the U.K. cannot a bespoke trade deal after the chief negotiator was seemingly contradicted by his senior adviser Stefaan De Rynck at a speech at British think tank Chatham House.
The service industries represent about 80% of the British economy. There is no free market for services outside the single market. By leaving the single market the UK has chosen to cripple its own economy. Continental economies will do fine trading goods under WTO. Moreover, after dealing with an initial disruption to the supply chain, continental economies will benefit from companies relocating from the UK to the single market.
Therefore, there is very little incentive to give the UK a special deal, especially since it would undermine the integrity of the single market and would give third countries the right to demand the same favors.