EU Says Johnson Will Be Blamed if Brexit Wrecks Trade with U.K.
(Bloomberg) -- European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said the U.K. will have “full responsibility” for any damage to the British economy after the post-Brexit transition expires, countering a stinging attack by Boris Johnson’s government on the conditions set by Brussels for a follow-up deal.
Hogan told a conference on Tuesday that the EU wants economic integration with the U.K. to remain deep, repeating that any free-trade agreement between both sides should align competition, environmental and other standards. The insistence that Britain stick to EU rules “simply fails to see the point of what we are doing,” the U.K.’s chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, warned hours before Hogan’s comments.
The sharply contrasting views about the framework for Britain’s ties with the EU as of 2021 set the stage for fraught negotiations and highlight the risk of a car-crash separation when a transitional arrangement that maintains the economic status quo expires on Dec. 31.
“We’re looking for a level playing field and they don’t seem to want it,” Hogan said in Brussels. Asked about the risk of future disruptions in EU-U.K. goods trade, he said: “It’s up to the United Kingdom to make sure it doesn’t happen. Full responsibility is in the hands of the United Kingdom.”
The U.K. government has said it opposes any prolongation of the transition period, leaving both sides only 10 months to reach a deal to prevent the emergence of tariffs and quotas on goods traded across the English Channel.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Hogan addressed the possibility of frictions in automotive commerce between the EU and U.K. to make a general point about both sides’ trade relations should Britain reject regulatory alignment with the bloc after the transition period.
“It’s a big worry for many of the manufacturing sectors in the U.K.,” he said. “If they want to diverge from the existing rules and regulations, we are going to have problems. And the more they diverge from the existing EU law and regulations, the more problems we’ll have.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Nikos Chrysoloras, Jonathan Stearns
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