Insight
Why the UK should extend the transition period by Sam Lowe 20 April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic means the UK should request a transition extension as a matter of urgency. To do otherwise would be unnecessarily reckless. On April 16th, David Frost, Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator, tweeted that the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed the UK’s position on extending the transition period. He said that the UK will not ask for an extension, and if the EU asks for an extension the UK will say “no”. However, there is still time for the British government to change its mind – the deadline for making the request is July 1st 2020 – and it should do so as a matter of urgency. Frost provided four reasons justifying the UK’s stance. He said that an extension would only serve to prolong the negotiations on the future relationship; create more uncertainty for business; leave the UK on the hook for additional payments to the EU; and leave the UK bound to EU law for longer, restricting its ability to control its own affairs. Negotiating the future EU-UK trade relationship in one year was always going to be difficult, albeit possible. However, doing so requires sustained political engagement and significant compromise, particularly on the UK side. The outbreak of COVID-19 means that, rightly, the negotiations have been deprioritised by EU and UK politicians, officials and businesses. The negotiation teams cannot currently meet face-to-face, and while technical matters can be resolved during video-conferencing sessions, no progress has been made on the meaty issues, which ultimately require decisions to be made by senior politicians. With government-imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions looking set to drag on for months to come, we should not expect the trade negotiations to be reprioritised anytime soon. Frost is right that agreeing to extend the transition will prolong the negotiations further, and in normal times there is a reasonable argument to be made that extending the deadline will just lead to procrastination on both sides. But these are not normal times, and the focus of both the EU and UK will inevitably be elsewhere, whether the December deadline is extended or not. Continuing to stick to the December 31st deadline just places more strain on governments whose energies should be directed
CER INSIGHT: Why the UK should extend the transition period 20 April 2020
info@cer.EU | WWW.CER.EU
1