Raab Says EU’s Brexit Stance Makes Progress on Deal ‘Difficult’
Raab Says EU’s Brexit Stance Makes Progress on Deal ‘Difficult’
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union’s uncompromising stance on Brexit makes progress toward a new deal “very difficult,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in the latest signal Britain may crash out of the bloc without an agreement.
The U.K. will “strive every sinew” to reach an “acceptable” deal, Raab said Wednesday at a news conference in Washington alongside his U.S. counterpart, Michael Pompeo.
“There is a deal to be done,” he said. “If the EU’s position is that there can be no change to the withdrawal agreement, then that will be a choice that they’ve made and that makes it very difficult to see how we can move the negotiations forward,” Raab said.
The U.K. is on course to tumble out of the EU on Oct. 31 if Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in office for just two weeks, can’t reach an accommodation with Brussels. He’s vowed to take Britain out of the EU by that deadline “do or die,” even if it means doing so without an agreement. That threatens to hurt the economy, crash the pound and strangle trade.
‘Whatever It Takes’
Johnson is demanding that the EU drops the “Irish backstop” -- a fallback provision agreed with the bloc by his predecessor, Theresa May, to ensure the border with Ireland stays open. That’s something EU leaders including Irish Premier Leo Varadkar say they won’t countenance because it would threaten the Northern Ireland peace agreement.
“In any no-deal scenario, we will do whatever it takes to avoid any hard border” with Ireland, Raab said.
Johnson is set to be tested when Parliament returns in September. Opponents of a no-deal Brexit -- including members of his own Conservatives -- are plotting to thwart him. With a paper majority of just one, Johnson is vulnerable to any rebellion, and opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn has signaled he’ll call for an “early” vote of no confidence in the government.
If Corbyn’s maneuver succeeds, Parliament could force the appointment of a new premier at the helm of a government of national unity, Tory former Attorney General Dominic Grieve said Monday. He later told the Times of London it would be unconstitutional for Johnson to stay in power through Brexit day by scheduling a general election for after Halloween.
That’s led to a war of words with Johnson’s influential aide, Dominic Cummings, one of the architects of the Brexit campaign in 2016, who said in a Sky News interview on Wednesday that “the prime minister believes that politicians don’t get to choose which votes they respect.” It was a reference to the 2016 referendum, whose result Grieve wants to overturn.
Labour would seek to lead its own government rather than broker a unity administration, its finance spokesman, John McDonnell, said on Wednesday in Edinburgh.
The Guardian reports in its Thursday edition that lawmakers may force Parliament to sit during its autumn recess -- when there would normally be a break for party conferences -- to give themselves more legislative time to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Against the backdrop of a fractious Parliament and an EU that’s reluctant to budge, Johnson has ratcheted up preparations for a no-deal Brexit, including earmarking an extra 2.1 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) for the contingency.
U.S. Trade Deal
On Wednesday, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and the cabinet minister in charge of no-deal Brexit preparations, Michael Gove, went to the port of Dover in southeast England to assess preparations there. The ministers met with representatives from the hauling, freight and port industries to discuss preparations for Brexit day.
Dover is a crucial chokepoint through which the biggest portion of cross-channel trade enters the country from France.
In the U.S., Raab said Britain is looking to embrace the “opportunities” of Brexit, including striking a trade deal with the U.S., the country’s biggest individual trade partner. Such a deal has been held up by Brexit supporters as one of the great prizes of leaving the European Union, and Raab said he wants one as soon as possible after Oct. 31. In that endeavor, he was offered encouragement by Pompeo.
After Brexit, “we’ll be on the doorstep pen in hand ready to sign a new free trade agreement at the earliest possible time,” Pompeo said.
Raab was in Canada on Tuesday and heads to Mexico on Thursday as the U.K. seeks to burnish ties with economies outside the EU.
In Mexico, he’s set to sign “the most wide-ranging agreement ever concluded” between Britain and the Latin American nation, his office said in a statement. The deal promotes greater investment and trade in sectors including energy, financial services and environmental technology, it said, estimating that business opportunities to U.K. companies valued at more than 450 million pounds would be created by 2026.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is also in the U.S. for a four-day visit during which she’s meeting government and congressional officials including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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