Brexit: David Davis outlines 'concerning' elements of deal

Last month, Britain and the EU finally sealed a post-Brexit trade agreement, ending months of bitter talks and disagreements over fishing rights and future business rules. On Christmas Eve, a statement from Downing Street announced “the deal is done” – swiftly followed by confirmation from Brussels. Speaking shortly after the announcement, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the agreement was a “good deal” for the “whole of Europe” – one that signified “a new stability and a new certainty in what has sometimes been a fractious and difficult relationship”.

Two days before the end of the transition period, MPs overwhelmingly approved the agreement in a parliamentary vote.

It came into force on January 1, guaranteeing tariff-free trade on most goods and creating a platform for future cooperation on issues such as crime-fighting, energy and data sharing.

While it is a huge triumph for the Prime Minister, who won a thumping majority in the 2019 general election with the promise “to get Brexit done”, Britain’s departure has without a doubt dealt a parting blow to the EU and its economy.

The EU website has recently been updated to show the size and scale of the bloc in the world, they now quote figures for the EU 27 without the UK.

It shows the EU currently at a little under 15 percent of world GDP, with a forecast suggesting this will fall to nine percent by 2050.

We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

The EU cites estimates that the USA will lose less of its share than the bloc over the next 30 years, while India will surge and China will do well.

Commenting on this, Conservative MP John Redwood said in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk: “The EU is obviously smaller now, as the EU website points out.

“They show some independent private forecast that suggests that it is going to fall to nine percent of world output by 2050.

“They are diminished and diminishing as a proportion of world output, where they often make claims based on size.”

Mr Redwood added: “I think it is wrong to make claims on size, but it means they have got to think very carefully how they boost their economy.

JUST IN: Dan Hannan warns THREE countries will follow UK out of bloc

“Their growth rates have been very slow, particularly during the recent decade, and they have missed out on this huge chunk of digital development, dominated by the US and China.

“Europe has really struggled in this digital world.

“They seem to be much more interested in the green revolution.”

In a recent entry for his blog, Mr Redwood also observed the EU’s website “has no record of the EU/UK trade agreement under trade deals”.

Under its ‘negotiations and agreements’ section, the site indeed appears to omit the UK from its list of countries.

DON’T MISS:
New Zealand farmers will have to go through LESS red tape [INSIGHT]
UK will never be FULLY in control of its waters like Norway [ANALYSIS]
Thatcher’s brutal analysis of ‘politburo’ EU proves why Britain left  [REVEALED]

This section of the website lists all of the countries with which the EU has, or is negotiating, an agreement of any kind.

The four sections are ‘Agreements in place’; ‘Agreements being adopted or ratified’; ‘Agreements being negotiated’; and ‘Agreements on hold’.

The UK does not appear on any of the lists, despite both sides agreeing to a trade deal and it being signed into law.

It is not clear why the EU has not yet updated this particular section of the site, though it may be an administrative delay.

Mr Redwood said: “The EU website today has no record of the EU/UK Trade Agreement under trade deals.

“Nor does its site give any indication of how to trade with the UK, left out from a long list of nations they refer to in the Trade section.

“Do they not want to keep on selling us so much, or are they just unable to update their site for the new realities?

“Surely they should put up the EU/UK Agreement subject to ratification, as I understand that is what they intend to do.

“Alternatively, if they do not think they will be ratifying it they should put up the WTO terms to alert people to that.”

However, the website does include a copy of the trade deal in the ‘documents and publications’ section.

Source: Read Full Article