| Author (Corporate) | United Kingdom: Department for Exiting the European Union |
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| Series Title | News |
| Series Details | 26.01.18 |
| Publication Date | 26/01/2018 |
| Content Type | News |
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Background United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May had chaired a roundtable with leaders of Europe’s key business organisations at Downing Street on the 13 November 2017. The Prime Minister reassured the group that Brexit meant the UK was leaving the EU, not Europe and reiterated her ambition for free and frictionless trade with the EU27 once the UK departs. She also expressed her commitment to giving businesses the certainty they need by agreeing a time-limited implementation period as soon as possible. In their joint statement issued after the meeting BusinessEurope (the representative organisation for business in Europe) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said that they had discussed the importance of positive progress in the UK-EU negotiations; the need for urgent agreement on a ‘status quo’ transition; and beginning discussions on a future economic relationship that drew on existing close economic ties. Commenting after the meeting, Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, said: 'With UK-EU trade worth more than €600bn each year, business groups from across Europe used today’s meeting with the Prime Minister as a welcome opportunity to highlight the mutual importance of seeing real progress before Christmas. All business organisations present reiterated the damage a ‘no-deal’ scenario would do to trade. 'A transition period reflecting the current arrangements remains the priority on both sides of the Channel'. The United Kingdom Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, David Davis, Chancellor Philip Hammond, and Business Secretary Greg Clark wrote to businesses on the 26 January 2018 setting out the UK’s ambitions for an implementation period following Brexit. In the joint letter, the three Cabinet Ministers outlined the Government’s commitment to providing businesses with the certainty and clarity they needed to plan ahead. The speech followed a speech given by David Davis on the 26 January 2018 in which he had said that to smooth the path to a new relationship with the European Union after Brexit there would need to be a strictly time limited implementation period (transition phase). Conservative Party divisions over Brexit had resurfaced during the previous week following reported comments by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond to British business leaders at the CBI's lunch in Davos on the 25 January 2018 when he had said 'We are taking two completely interconnected and aligned economies with high levels of trade between them, and selectively, moving them, hopefully very modestly, apart'. Brexiteers in the Conservative Party disagreed with this interpretation - Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said that 'close alignment' with the EU after Brexit would be unacceptable. He said that the approach suggested by the ministers in the joint letter would lead to 'Brexit in name only'. The difficulty for the divided Conservative Government in reaching an agreement on the detail of a future trading relationship with the EU continued during February 2018. On the 7 February 2018 Francis Martin, President of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and Adam Marshall, the BCC’s Director General, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, making an urgent appeal for clarity on the government’s objectives. The BCC’s leaders urged the government to make key choices and deliver a clear statement of intent – so that businesses of all sizes and sectors could make decisions for the future. |
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| Source Link | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/open-letter-to-business-on-implementation-period |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry |
| Countries / Regions | United Kingdom |
