At BEST we’ll get Canada PLUS! EU expert says the UK will PAY a PRICE for Canada deal
CHARLES Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, said the UK will “at best” get a “Canada plus” deal but the EU will make Britain pay a price for it.
The pro-EU lobby chief said that the UK will probably ask for something different from the Norway or Canada-style trade deals.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight, he said: “They say it’s Norway or Canada, the British are probably going to ask for something that is neither.
“Based on regularity alignment, we’d be almost in the single market, we’d be aligned with EU rules.”
Mr Grant warned that if the UK changed the rules the EU would “punish us a bit” by removing access to the single market.
BBC NEWSNIGHT/GETTY
We will at best get I believe what I’d call Canada plus
He said: “If we changed our rules, we’d allow them to punish us a bit by removing market access but Barnier is going to say no to that.
“We will at best get I believe... what I’d call Canada plus which means Canada but with a bit more services added in.
“Not single market but some access in aviation, financial services, electricity, data flows which matter.”
Mr Grant added that the UK would have to take on some of the EU’s rules as a "price" for a trade deal.
He said: “We’ll have to pay a price though. The price would be taking the rules from the EU, paying money into the budget and taking something like the Court of Justice to tell us what to do.”
Brexit Secretary David Davis has described his favoured deal from negotiations with Brussels to be based on the best of the deals already in place with other countries around the world.
On Sunday’s Andrew Marr show he said: “What we want is a bespoke outcome: We’ll probably start with the best of Canada, the best of Japan and the best of South Korea and then add to that the bits that are missing, which is services.”
He said: “Canada plus plus plus would be one way of putting it.”
