The European Union is floating the idea that they’ll ask for access to British fishing waters in return for allowing The City to sell in Europe. There being two problems with this. The first is that those passports to sell in Europe aren’t actually needed – it’s trivially simple to engineer full access now, as it is. The second is that it’s an entirely absurd idea anyway.
The EU’s trade commissioner has suggested there could be a last-minute trade-off with Brussels offering the City of London access to European markets in return for European fleets retaining their fishing rights in British waters.
The UK’s financial services sector will lose its automatic right to serve Europe-based clients at the end of the transition period and the EU will need to negotiate access to UK waters for its fishing boats.
Phil Hogan, the former Irish minister who is now trade commissioner in Brussels overseeing the next stage of the Brexit negotiations, told the Irish Independent: “There certainly will be trade-offs, particularly at the end of the negotiations. The EU will be seeking concessions on fishery access and the UK will very probably be seeking concessions on financial services.”
Set up a subsidiary in any EU country and you’re golden to sell your services in any EU country. Sure, it’s a little bit of expense but any City organisation that want’s to can and many have. So, that’s that dealt with.
But now consider the absurdity. Both fish and finance are exports from the UK. As with all exports the value goes to the consumer – they’re getting something lovely that their own domestic economy and or resources can’t or isn’t providing. This is as true of fish as it is of finance. The beneficiaries of access to British fish are the same people as the beneficiaries of access to British finance – EU consumers.
The argument being deployed is that because EU consumers are made better off by access to The City therefore they should be compensated by access to British fish.
Which is an absurd argument, entirely doolally. Which is, of course, why we’re leaving for who wants to be ruled by a system that actually believes in such cretinism?
The problem isn’t them asking for stuff, its a negotiation and you shoot for the moon at the start, its that the Remainer MSM and politicians will be either wilfully ignorant or just ignorant and use it to try to score points.
When the converse happens and we ask for stuff that we’ll never get they’ll again use it to demonstrate their ignorance.
It really would be better if the early stages were conducted in secret. I think it was Mick McGahey who said something like secret talks but no secret deals.
It’s the usual Blazing Saddles stand-off. Don’t shoot! Or I’ll shoot myself!
I don’t think anyone is saying they won’t have access to ‘British’ fish. They may be able to get licenses to fish in our waters, or they can buy them from those who are allowed. No big deal. Unless you want it to be.
It has always been completely obvious that the Eurocrats in Brussels would have Plan A — get the ignorant English to reverse that knife-edge referendum to leave — and failing that would have Plan B — make life as hard as possible for the UK outside the EU, pour encourager les autres. The best interests of the citizens of the EU are of as little importance to those bureaucrats as the best interests of the English. Nearly 10 years for the EU to negotiate a trade deal with Canada! And that was a deal the EU wanted to make, and… Read more »
The eurocrats are under no democratic incentive to consider the effects of their decisions on the EU populace. They have a very strong incentive to preserve and increase the powers of the eurocrats. This is (one of the main reasons) why I voted Leave.
Yes, they don’t seem to udnerstand that EU companies want to access to UK banks and markets, in exactly the same way that EU fishermen want to access UK fish. They are, as you point out, the same thing. It is extremely odd how they can see it for fish but can’t see it for Eurobonds.
@BiND
Correct. My fear is know nothing Pols and Pro-EU Pols, civil servants and msm will capitulate.
Fingers crossed Dominic Cummings can educate and over-rule the surrender monkeys and “I want to be liked BoJo”
Liked by rest of EU is more peeps than UK – see wannabe President Blair
msm still banging on about how RoI will suffer ‘if’ we leave without… Who cares? RoI is not our problem, it’s theirs and EU’s