This item (HERE) on The Politico website seems to be the first concrete indication we've had that Britain is headed for a free trade deal along the lines of CETA. Barnier has said previously that the EU are not going to mix models, implying that we can either have the close market integration of membership or the EEA, or a free trade deal like CETA not some cherry picked, hybrid combination
Now Politico claim to have seen a draft copy of a document being circulated ahead of the EU agreeing a common position on our future relationship. The key points being identified are our wishes to have what the document calls regulatory autonomy and to be outside the ECJ jurisdiction. These two red lines set out clearly by Mrs May mean that a standard free trade agreement is the best we can hope for.
The article makes it clear that CETA does not cover services, particularly financial services and trade in food will be subject to quotas and sanitary and phyto sanitary controls. The document concludes it would be too difficult to manage divergence under any other models.
Mrs May has already told us that a free trade deal would represent "such a restriction on our mutual market access that it would benefit neither of our economies". It is far from the frictionless trade she has promised the car Industry for example and will only encourage the banks to mover more quickly.
