British Gov’t To Present Brexit Plan For Financial Services

The keynote address was scheduled to be in Newcastle but had to be moved to Mansion House in central London due to the adverse weather this week.

During this period Britain would keep paying into the EU budget as planned, trade on the same terms and accept European rules and regulations, but will have no say in those rules as it will not be a formal member.

However, beyond the warm words, this was May’s most detailed and revealing Brexit speech yet.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told a news conference on Tuesday that EU and Japanese leaders might be able to sign a deal by the summer. Some in the aviation sector have expressed concerns that Brexit could leave Britain in a regulatory no-mans land in which planes are not allowed to take-off.

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However, Tusk has dismissed as “pure illusion” some of the ideas that many expect to form part of her proposal to maintain close regulatory alignment with the European Union in some sectors.

In an attempt to woo her continental listeners and build bridges after a turbulent week, May will say her vision “is in the EU’s interests as well as ours and because of our unique starting point, where on day one we both have the same laws and rules”. That may be even more hard than the ups and downs of the months ahead that May predicted for her talks with Brussels.

Her proposal would divide trade into three baskets.

Ms Sturgeon said even if it were achieved it would be nowhere near as good as being in single market.

Brussels raised the pressure this week with a draft treaty suggesting Northern Ireland could stay in a customs union with the EU while the rest of Britain remained outside. And for the third basket, which would contain many new areas of as-yet little-regulated technology, such as artificial intelligence, Britain would go its own way.

“This includes protecting the single electricity market across Ireland and Northern Ireland – and exploring options for the UK’s continued participation in the EU’s internal energy market”.

Nonetheless she refused to implement it as it would mean that in the event no different arrangement was agreed, either Northern Ireland or the United Kingdom as a whole would remain in the customs union and abide by some single market rules. Again, close alignment in order to deliver frictionless trade, and ease the tensions over the Irish border. Most experts doubt this will work.

Hardline Brexiteers will be more anxious about the speech than the party’s pro-Europeans. Officials in Ireland have already made it clear that they will make a play for media firms to resettle there.

“We’re leaving the Single Market”.

They are also anticipated to agree guidelines for negotiations on the future relationship, including trade, which will start in April. They are not likely to be helpful to the British government’s negotiating aims.

She will tell European Union leaders she wants the “deepest and broadest possible” trade agreement with the bloc as she seeks to lay the ground for the next phase of the Brexit negotiations.