British Sovereignty Means Free Will, Not a Free Lunch
If the U.K. gets an EU trade deal, there will still be a never-ending series of decisions and trade-offs to be made. Some will be very uncomfortable.
An endless process.
Photographer: Tim Graham/Getty Images EuropeOnly a handful of people are privy to what’s going on inside the “tunnel” of European Union-U.K. trade talks. But the softening of political rhetoric since Sunday suggests negotiators have achieved a breakthrough of sorts on the question of maintaining a level playing field on post-Brexit trade rules, one of the three big things dividing the two sides. This has implications not only for the prospects of a deal but for how Britain makes laws after Brexit.
The EU said back in 2017 that preferential access to its single market would depend on the U.K. remaining aligned with its environmental, social and labor-market standards, as well as with its state aid rules. Brussels sees the need for this level playing field as existential. The bloc doesn’t want the British getting a competitive advantage through looser regulations, or other EU members thinking that they can also abandon the obligations of membership while keeping the benefits.