UK disregards EU threat, legislates Internal Market Bill
The British Government has expressed desire to go ahead with its controversial Internal Market Bill disregarding the EU ultimatum and thread to reverse the decision.
The law which the government published recently if finally becomes a law would undermine the deal the U.K. had with the EU for its exit from the bloc.
The Bill would potentially put the U.K. in a position where it would not legally need to consult with the EU in terms of state aids which also include trading goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the EU.
Also, the bill would alter the stipulated terms for export summary declarations that should be completed by the Northern Irish firms when shipping gods to the mainland.
However, the U.K. had earlier in January reached an agreement with the EU to leave these conditions unchanged and to act accordingly.
Seeing the direction the U.K is heading with the bill, the EU had made a precondition for the U.K. to respect the previous deals before establishing any trade agreement with the EU.
At a meeting in London on Thursday, the EU officials requested that the U.K., as latest as the end of the month, reverse its decision to go ahead with the law.
The EU after the meeting restated its message to the U.K saying that the bill has destroyed the trust they once had between each other and that the U.K. should consider truncating the passage of the bill to restore the trust.
“By putting forward this Bill, the U.K. has seriously damaged trust between the EU and the U.K. It is now up to the U.K. government to re-establish that trust,” said the EU.
While disclosing the U.K resolve on the bill, Michael Gove, U.K representative at the meeting, emphasized that the bill would not override the preexisting deals. He added, contrary to EU’s expectation, that there is no going back on legislating the bill.
In response to Michael, the EU said that it would not hesitate to take necessary legal actions if the U.K. fails to yield the warning to stop the bill.
Meanwhile, the U.K.-EU escalations has worsened over the weeks especially over state aid and fishing regulations.
Several meetings have been held to get both sides reach solid agreement. More meetings would still be held in the course of next week.
Similarly, both sides have earlier agreed to speed up talks over trade agreements which they have agreed to take effect as from January 2021. But the pandemic has been a challenge preventing the talks from being held as earlier planned.
According to some analysts, the tension between the U.K. and the EU could be a tactic to arrive at no deal at all. While some have predicted that the trade talks might after all fail.
If both sides fail to come to a trade agreement, the alternative is for them to trade under the rules of World Trade Organization which would mean many more barriers between them and resultant astronomical costs in trade.
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