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The Center for Brexit Policy document has challenged Boris Johnson’s claim that the UK will resort to “Australia’s rules” under the terms of the World Trade Organization if no deal is reached with the EU. It comes after talks between Britain’s Lord Frost and top EU negotiator Michel Barnier reopened in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement. The report backed by leading Brexit supporters, including Conservative MPs in the European Research Group, increases pressure to repeal the Withdrawal Agreement if the EU refuses to come to reasonable terms.
However, a senior minister told the Sunday Express that repealing the Withdrawal Agreement is “more trouble than it’s worth.
The minister pointed out: “It is an international agreement so we have the right to interpret it in the context of our constitutional arrangements so it is not so problematic.
“Added to that as time goes by and it gets more distant, the deal becomes less relevant.”
However, the CBP document has raised concerns about the WA’s long-term impact.
It concludes that the legal guarantees the government has already given to Brussels mean that Mr Johnson’s rollback option cannot be secured without a radical review of past commitments.
CBP also notes that unless there is a major turnaround, the government risks breaking promises it made in the 2019 Conservative election manifesto to “regain control” of the laws, borders and money of the nation.
The report, The ‘Australia Deal’: Another Impossible Dream, underscores the damaging impact of the WA and the associated Northern Ireland Protocol (PIN) that was signed into law a year ago.
This part of the agreement, which is legally binding in international law and would give Brussels lawyers a field day, ties the UK so close to the EU that it will not be able to match even the basic trade agreement Australia has with the EU. .
READ MORE: Boris Johnson delivered a warning about the Brexit trade deal
CBP CEO John Longworth stated: “The government is caught between a rock and a hard place. A Canadian-style deal remains elusive.
“Even the much less attractive Australian-style deal with the EU, which amounts to little more than negotiating under WTO rules, seems like a pipe dream as long as WA exists.
“The only way out of this mess is to accept that the legacy deal made a year ago, which at least broke the Brexit deadlock that paralyzed the previous Parliament and led to Boris’s astonishing election victory, is deeply flawed and should be relegated to the junk of history.
“Only by eliminating the WA / NIP and driving a new tough negotiation with Europe will Boris be able to deliver on his key promises: regain control and achieve a real Brexit.”
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CBP already warned in its previous report earlier this month. that the Prime Minister’s stated goal of a “Canada-style” deal with the EU is impossible as long as the WA / NIP remains in place.
That report listed 12 reasons why Johnson would be denied his ambitions in Canada.
The new report says the situation is even worse as WA / NIP blocks even its last hope for a basic deal along Australian lines.
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