The deadlock in EU-Canada trade talks is in no way an ill omen for a future British deal with the bloc, given the EU’s huge incentive to reach arrangements with a post-Brexit UK, a leading pro-leave minister has insisted.
Chris Grayling said he did not fear a British trade deal with the EU would not be frustrated – as the Canadian discussions have been by Wallonia – as the French-speaking region of Belgium sold a lot of agricultural produce to Britain.
“Obviously, we want the Canadian deal to be done; it is in the interests of everyone on both sides of the Atlantic that that happens,” said the transport secretary, a strong proponent of Brexit before the 23 June referendum.
“But I think there is a very different question with our relationship with the European Union,” he told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.
“We are their most important export market. If you look at the issue of Belgium this week, which has been at the heart of the debate over the Canadian deal, we are a huge market for Belgian agriculture. Nobody in continental Europe benefits from a reduction in the ability to trade with the United Kingdom.”
Grayling said he did not fear the Wallonia parliament blocking a deal, as it has done with the comprehensive economic and trade agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, which has taken seven years of negotiations and which would eliminate tariffs on most goods between them.
“We buy a whole load of produce from Walloon farmers, and so therefore it is not going to be in their interests to see tariffs imposed,” Grayling said. “This is why I have always been convinced that we will have tariff-free trade, we will have sensible trading arrangements, because it is in both of our interests that should happen.”
Asked if political bitterness could get in the way of such economic arguments, Grayling said there was “always going to be emotion in this”, but insisted he had experienced “nothing but friendly relations and a desire to work together in the future” from other EU nations.
Speaking on the same programme, Hilary Benn, the Labour MP who was elected last week as the first chair of the new Brexit select committee, reiterated his argument for ministers to seek a transitional arrangement in case no permanent deal can be reached in time.
“I think it is going to be very important for the government to indicate that, if it is not possible within the two years provided for by article 50 to negotiate both our withdrawal agreement and a new trading relationship – market access, including for services, 80% of our economy, a million jobs in financial services – that it should tell the House of Commons that it will seek a transitional arrangement with the European Union,” he said.
“The withdrawal process may be only the two years, because 27 other member states have to agree to prolong it, but I think the importance of a transitional arrangement is it would offer some confidence to business – and that’s very important – pending the government finally being able to negotiate a new arrangement with the rest of the European Union on trade and market access.”
