In a new report for the Institute for Government, former
prime ministerial adviser says it is possible for the
UK to negotiate a narrow and shallow Free Trade
Agreement with the EU – and
have it ratified and in
place – by the end of
2020.
However, Ruparel, who spent a year as Theresa May’s special
adviser on Europe and before that worked as an adviser to then
Brexit secretary , warns
that Whitehall is yet not set up to run complex Brexit
negotiations or implement the result. He says the
Department for Exiting the European Union should now be wound
down, and the government should set up a new unit for
negotiations and delivery run from the Cabinet
Office or move DExEU’s work into the Department for International
Trade (DIT).
Writing a guest report for the IfG, Ruparel argues
that lessons must be learned from the first
round of Brexit negotiations if future talks are to succeed, and
warns that departmental preparations made under Theresa May’s
government lacked direction and “may not have much bearing on
[the current] reality”.
Ruparel says there “urgently needs to be central political
direction and decisions on the detail of the future relationship
and the overarching strategy for the next phase – this should all
then be turned into legal text as soon as possible (to help the
UK get on the front foot).”
Ruparel also warns that the desire for a deal to be in
force by the end of 2020 may end up limiting the ambition of the
negotiations. He argues that the government may face a choice as
to whether the deal on offer is worth the EU’s demands in areas
such as ‘level playing field’ and fisheries. This choice suggests
that the risk of the UK falling to reach an agreement by the end
of 2020 is still real.
said:
“The government and civil service have a lot of work to do
if they are to prepare to leave with a deal – especially given
Boris Johnson’s deadline of the end of 2020. As it stands, the UK
does not yet appear ‘match-fit’ for the next phase of
negotiations. There is a huge amount of work to be done to flesh
out the detail of what the UK wants from its future relationship
with the EU, and Whitehall is not yet ready to negotiate such a
complex and wide-ranging agreement, nor implement it. But
contrary to what many say, it is possible to negotiate a Free
Trade Agreement with the EU by the end of next year.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. Full
report can be found here: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/
