The coming trade negotiations will be the oddest ever. David Davis is apparently planning to tell the EU that it will not be allowed to cherry pick the sectors of the UK economy that it wants included in any deal (HERE). The smaller, weaker party is setting out to reinforce the larger, dominant party's red lines. Both sides have now ruled out any cherry picking. It looks like we are either IN or OUT.
This is what the report says:
"However, in a sign of the potential Brexit row to come, British government sources told The Guardian that Mr Davis is intending to tell the EU that it will not be allowed to 'cherry pick' the sectors of the UK's economy it wants included in any deal on future trading arrangements. The Brexit Secretary is likely to insist that Britain will not allow Brussels to separate services from goods during negotiations.".
If we demand both goods and services are included in any FTA we are likely to finish up with no FTA at all with far more damage to us than to the EU. The talk of us "not allowing" it is just risible.
The government cannot control which customers multinational corporations do business with and Davis' demand can only lead to both banks and car manufacturers relocating operations into the EU. We are seeking to maintain exactly the same access to the single market that we have now, a market six times our size. The EU know exactly how valuable the internal market is to third countries and are not likely to give anything cheaply, if they give anything at all.
Added to that is the clear intention on the part of Dublin, Paris and Frankfurt to steal as much of our financial and fintech business as they can. Davis' intervention, if it comes, can only help them do it.
