“Trade talks are over,” says no.10, but where’s the statement revoking the Withdrawal Treaty?

The EU is now in de facto breach of the Withdrawal Treaty, which must be repudiated immediately

Full text of the PM’s statement, comments from No.10, and our Brexit Facts4EU.Org analysis

Below is the Prime Minister’s official statement on the temporary halt to the trade talks with the EU, together with a “No, it’s business as usual” response from Brussels.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman enlarged on and clarified the statement, telling journalists:

“There is only any point in Michel Barnier coming to London next week if he's prepared to address all the issues on the basis of a legal text in an accelerated way, without the UK required to make all the moves or to discuss the practicalities of travel and haulage.”
“If not there is no point in coming.”
“Trade talks are over. The EU have effectively ended them by saying they do not want to change their negotiating position.”

Here is the full text of the statement by the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP on 16 October 2020

“Good morning,

“We left the EU on January 31 and delivered on the largest democratic mandate in the history of this country.

“And since then we have been in a transition period obeying EU law, paying our fees – as a non-voting member – working on the future relationship we hope to enjoy with our friends and partners from January.

“And from the outset we were totally clear that we wanted nothing more complicated than a Canada-style relationship, based on friendship and free trade.

“To judge by the latest EU summit in Brussels that won’t work for our EU partners. They want the continued ability to control our legislative freedom, our fisheries, in a way that is obviously unacceptable to an independent country.

“And since we have only ten weeks until the end of the transition period on January 1, I have to make a judgment about the likely outcome and to get us all ready.

“And given that they have refused to negotiate seriously for much of the last few months, and given that this summit appears explicitly to rule out a Canada-style deal, I have concluded that we should get ready for January 1 with arrangements that are more like Australia’s based on simple principles of global free trade.

“And we can do it, because we always knew that there would be change on January 1 whatever type of relationship we had. And so now is the time for our businesses to get ready, and for hauliers to get ready, and for travellers to get ready.

“And of course we are willing to discuss the practicalities with our friends where a lot of progress has already been made, by the way, on such issues as social security, and aviation, nuclear cooperation and so on.

“But for whatever reason it is clear from the summit that after 45 years of membership they are not willing – unless there is some fundamental change of approach – to offer this country the same terms as Canada.

“And so with high hearts and complete confidence we will prepare to embrace the alternative. And we will prosper mightily as an independent free trading nation, controlling our own borders, our fisheries, and setting our own laws.

“And in the meantime the government will be focussing on tackling COVID and building back better so that 2021 is a year of recovery and renewal. Thank you very much.”

Meanwhile in Brussels it was as if nothing had happened

Yesterday afternoon, in response to the statements from No.10, the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted a “No, it’s business as usual” message.

🇪🇺-🇬🇧 talks: the EU continues to work for a deal, but not at any price.

As planned, our negotiation team will go to London next week to intensify these negotiations.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 16, 2020

So, on the one hand No.10 says there’s no point Monsieur Barnier travelling to London next week, and on the other hand it seems he will be doing just that.

According to a spokesperson from No.10 yesterday evening, Lord Frost spoke to Michel Barnier by phone: “Lord Frost said that, as the PM had made clear, the European Council's conclusions yesterday had left us without a basis to continue the trade talks without a fundamental change in the EU's approach to these negotiations. There was accordingly no basis for negotiations in London as of Monday.”

Observations

It must always be remembered that the EU is desperate for the UK to be seen as the party at fault. The PM has to sound reasonable, for those around the world who are watching, and his statement must be viewed in this light.

The words from the PM’s official spokesman were for us more encouraging than those uttered by Boris Johnson himself.

“Trade talks are over. The EU have effectively ended them by saying they do not want to change their negotiating position.”

The problem is with what happens next, and unfortunately there are as yet no signs that the UK Government will go nearly far enough.

There are two huge challenges, not one

There are in fact two absolutely fundamental elements to the UK’s future relationship with the EU

A ‘SuperCanada’ UK-EU trade deal, and
The repudiation of the Withdrawal Treaty

The first is clearly now unattainable in our view. However the most fundamental element that has not yet been mentioned by No.10 is the second of these fundamentals. With the PM effectively declaring yesterday that the EU has shown no serious intent to establish a normal trade deal with the UK, this puts the EU in de facto breach of the Withdrawal Treaty.

The EU aren't stupid

It was instructive that the President of the EU Council's first tweet about their discussions contained this:

“Withdrawal agreement has to be fully implemented. Full stop.”

The EU are not stupid. They know that the Withdrawal Treaty turns the UK into a colony of the EU for decades to come.

All EU27 Leaders stand behind their negotiator.

We all want to reach an agreement, but not at any price.

Withdrawal agreement has to be fully implemented. Full stop. #EUCO pic.twitter.com/E8RocAZC6B
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) October 15, 2020

There must be a total repudiation of the Withdrawal Treaty, on the basis that the EU entered into it in bad faith and has failed to observe its basic premise of the requirement to put in place a normal trade agreement with the UK.

The case for this is very clear and we have published the evidence. (For readers wanting a quick summary, please see the last piece we did on 10 Sept 2020.)

If the Prime Minister is serious about trade talks being over,
what better time than to announce that the Withdrawal Treaty is null and void?
Once again we urge the Prime Minister most strongly to announce this essential move.

If he does so this weekend, this would still allow time for the dust to settle and for a series of side agreements with the EU to be agreed quietly, to ensure a reasonable form of continuity after 31 December 2020 on matters such as travel, haulage, security, etc.

Finally, our appeal. We have a huge amount to do between now and the end of the year (and sadly for some months afterwards). We can only continue researching, publishing, and lobbying with the support of ordinary readers like you.

If you care as passionately as we do about the re-establishment of the United Kingdom as a free, independent, and sovereign country, please support our work now with a donation. Even better if you could help us with a monthly sum. Quick and secure donation methods are linked to below this article and you will receive a warm and friendly ‘thank you’ email from a member of our team!

[ Sources: No.10 | EU Twitter accounts ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 17 Oct 2020

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Reader Comments 19

11. Mike S , Saturday, October 17, 2020, 12:32:

If anything,we need Macron to stick to the usual huffing & puffing, demands shouting & fist waving & thumping behaviours that is synonymous to this uninteresting French idiot that he is! Boris MIGHT actually be going to be doing something that has been far,far too long in the waiting by the UK people! A British politician that actually does what they say,even after a vote,any vote,by the people! If Boris & Co do actually rip up the WA & PD,(& here's hoping that he does) & goes ahead & implements the Internal Market Bill',then,to Hell with the French,as well as the EU & we keep everything to ourselves,giving the EU nothing but even more of our contempt! Macron is a major thorn in the side of the EU & long may he be so to them as they undoubtedly deserve one another! If there is/was any time & a place to go,in a full British time honoured fashion,it's now! The EU is trembling & on its knees! NOW is the time to strike the finishing blow to the EU! If a customer decides to leave a business premises to shop elsewhere, nobody can stop them or force them stay & buy from them but, the EU,of which is merely a business corporation, albeit a corrupt one, seems to be of the opinion that it's customer,in this case the UK,MUST stay & benefit them! Stick to it Boris,& stick it to the ENTIRE EU!

12. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, October 17, 2020, 12:56:

The single page article 50 set out the task of the WA to seek agreement on the future relationship with the departing State. Brussels turned this into 500 pages.
Leaving without a trade deal can the EU Council be said to have carried out their commitment to Article 50 and the WA. The answer may lie in 'Briefings for Britain' by Lee Rotherham.
I am sure come January opportunities to repudiate the WA will occur.

13. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, October 17, 2020, 13:30:

'Briefings for Britain' , bed time reading for Boris if he can stay awake. Who would want to be in his shoes. He is earning his keep despite all the criticism.

14. JonL , Saturday, October 17, 2020, 23:31:

Proposals to denounce the WA are tempting, but there are a couple of important problems. One is that this is an easy answer, and those always lead away from careful consideration of all the issues. The second is that even if you decide to ignore the WA, the EU will not. Instead, the EU will turn the WA into a large non-tariff barrier that they can apply to all kinds of apparently unconnected issues.
Judging by his recent statements, Barnier could, to take one example, announce that data handling and data sharing inside the UK have to be done under highly intrusive EU standards, with physical EU checks on UK sovereign territory, and under punitive ECB jurisdiction, otherwise associated goods cannot enter the EU - and these days what goods do not involve data?
How this will evolve item by item is impossible to predict, but we are moving from the issue of goods attracting zero or non-zero tariffs to UK exports being allowed in the EU at all.
And this will be the case, WA or no WA. Barnier will continue to use the WA to harm the UK, and he will do that whether or not the WA "exists" in UK law, so by trying to abolish it, we might merely hand him a propaganda victory, yet find ourselves in the same situation.

15. Concerned , Sunday, October 18, 2020, 05:51:

Bertram (8), the polls putting Biden ahead are inflated. Polls are unreliable, biased and not worth the time spent looking at them. In this particular case I believe this article far more than anything else I have read on this subject: https://www.theepochtimes.c...

16. Hugh Potton , Sunday, October 18, 2020, 09:24:

Couldn't agree more with every word that has been said above! What a shame it's taken us nearly 50years to get to this realisation though! Heath ushering us in to the EEC in 1973, Major ratifying Maastricht in 1992, and Brown acceding to Lisbon in 2007; all major changes in our sovereignty/constitution enacted without once having consulted the British public to ascertain their willingness to proceed! It's payback time for those outrageous wrongdoings - just hope it's not too late for our British fishing, farming, and manufacturing base, all of which have suffered appallingly under the jurisdiction of the EU.

17. Diane , Sunday, October 18, 2020, 11:12:

It's what was not said which should concern us. Rather short & sweet. No doubt deliberately carefully worded and stage managed. "Just rhetoric" "A blast of rhetoric" says 'Brussels' Let's just wait for those disguised fresh demands and that last minute ' breakthrough '. So much has been reneged on already and considering what has occurred in recent months & how the antics of various groups and insurgencies have barely been challenged, cynical admittedly, it's not unreasonable to suppose there will be a bending to the will of 'Berlin' and 'Paris' also.

18. Jedmir , Sunday, October 18, 2020, 11:35:

This is more "dead in a ditch" nonsense from BoJo. He will give in at the last minute and sign a deal prepared by the EU , watch and see.

19. People's Friend , Sunday, October 18, 2020, 12:16:

Rip up the WA and defund the BBC at the same time! It's like draining the swamp.

19 comments, page 2 of 2

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