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Failure to agree on a post-Brexit trade deal by the UK and the European Union would be “very, very damaging for everyone,” said Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Talks between the two sides have been taking place in London this week, but are not expected to bear fruit despite the need for early progress if a new agreement is to be established when the current agreements expire.
The EU wants a deal in mid-November to be ratified before the transition agreements expire at the end of the year and the UK leaves the customs union and the single market.
Without an agreement, trade between the UK and the EU will be subject to tariffs set by the World Trade Organization.
Speaking to the BBC, Martin said that failure to reach a deal would be “ruinous” for the UK and that Ireland would suffer too.
He told the broadcaster: “We have all had a very significant impact on our economic system due to Covid-19; the last thing we need right now in all of our respective economies is a second major shock.”
Martin also said that the UK must be “very careful not to do anything that could destabilize Northern Ireland’s politics” and that no deal after the transition period could create “unnecessary tensions”.
The Fianna Fáil leader told Dáil this week that any agreement would have to “lead to a neutralization of the offending clauses of the Internal Markets Bill” and lead to “a strict adherence to the protocol and the Withdrawal Agreement.”
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He added that he welcomed the decision made in the House of Lords on Monday regarding the bill, which contains controversial measures that seek to break parts of the Brexit divorce deal.
“Efforts must be made to assure the EU that what has happened in terms of the Internal Market Law will not happen within 12 months if an agreement is reached between the European Union and the United Kingdom,” added. also he said.
The main obstacles between the UK and the EU are believed to include “level playing field” measures aimed at preventing unfair competition on issues such as state subsidies, the ongoing dispute over fishing rights and how any deal will be governed. between the UK and the EU.
Stefaan de Rynck, an advisor to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, insisted that the EU side had been willing to engage in the negotiations, implying that it was British resistance that impeded progress.
“The EU has been in compromise mode at all the negotiating tables, for months,” he tweeted yesterday.
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