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Boris Johnson admitted that the Brexit trade deal “may not go as far as we would like” on access to EU markets for financial services, while insisting it had struck a deal that critics said would be impossible.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the Prime Minister said he had defied accusations of “cake-ism” – in search of the impossible – by securing a trade deal to deviate from the standards of the EU.
It had been, Johnson said, presented as out of the question “that you could do free trade with the EU without being drawn into their regulatory or legislative orbit.”
While service industries, the bulk of UK exports to the EU, could face potential regulatory or non-tariff barriers, Johnson said there had been “access for lawyers, lawyers” and “A good deal for digital”.
But on financial services, he said the deal “may not go as far as we would like”.
There are measures in the agreement for the possible imposition of tariffs if the UK deviates significantly from existing standards. Johnson said this shouldn’t be seen by Brexit-conscious Tory MPs as too restrictive.
“All this means is that the UK will not immediately send children down the chimneys or dump raw sewage on its beaches,” he said. “We are not going to regress, and you would expect it.”
Stating that it was “unlikely” that the UK would impose its own tariffs, Johnson added that any imposed by the EU “should be proportionate and approved by the arbitrator”, and if this happens regularly, the UK United would revert to World Trade Organization trade. terms.
However, Johnson told the newspaper, the UK could and would chart its own course in some areas, citing as an idea the notion of so-called free ports, low-tax trading zones which advocates say , stimulate economic growth, but which have been accused of aiding tax evasion. Free ports exist within the EU, but with certain restrictions.
The prime minister said more plans would emerge now that the trade deal was finalized: “A great effort by the government was made to compile them and we didn’t necessarily want to talk much about them during this time, as it didn’t might not have been successful. ”
He added: “We want to see what we can do forward. We don’t want to diverge in order to diverge. But we’re going to want to do things differently where it helps the British.
MPs and peers will meet on December 30 to review and vote on the deal, ahead of the January 1 expiration of the current Brexit transition period.
Although the fact that Labor has said it will vote for the deal ensures it will pass easily, Johnson could still face the wrath of his party’s heavily pro-Brexit wing, which is currently reviewing the details of the agreement.
In the interview, Johnson sought to present the deal as the ultimate conclusion of Margaret Thatcher’s speech in Bruges in 1988, in which she denounced the idea of a “European superstate,” calling Thatcher’s speech a “prophetic”.
“This is the end of a long and eventful period, during which we kept trying to pretend that we could accept all kinds of things that we didn’t really want to do to keep up with the great European Union project,” he said. he said of the trade deal.
“I think this gives us a basis for a new friendship and partnership which should attract people who love Europe and want to have a good relationship with it, who want to feel close to it.
“But it should also be something welcome for people who see the benefits of economic and political independence. I think the country as a whole has found itself on a new and more stable basis. It’s a better relationship and a healthier relationship. “
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