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‘High price for British trade treaty with US’

The British government' is expecting too much of American support after Brexit: there will be a high price to pay for any trade treaty with the United States. This was the view expressed by assistant professor Joris Larik in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant today, following the visit of American President Donald Trump to the UK.

The contours of Brexit are becoming clearer. The United Kingdom is aiming to leave the European customs union, limit the free movement of persons and withdraw from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. One of the consequences is that England may in future conclude trade agreements with countries outside the EU, including with the United States, Larik writes.  

Take back control?

But this is not necessarily to the advantage of the United Kingdom, according to the assistant professor of Comparative, European and International Law.  ‘It may well be that the UK will continue to be an important market even outside the EU, but alone it only represents one-sixth of the gross domestic product of the present EU. The UK will have to offer the American negotiators something to make a trade treaty attractive for them. The slogan of the Leave campaign was 'Take back control', but rather than taking back control from the EU, control will actually be passed on to strong countries outside the EU. There's no free lunch.' 

Read the complete article on Volkskrant.nl (in Dutch).

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