Brexit tactics smack of ‘panic’, says Miriam Gonzalez

The UK needs to decide what it wants from its trade policy rather than strike ‘agreements for agreements’ sake’ and doing deals that smack of ‘panic’, says Miriam Gonzalez, a leading trade expert and wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Theresa May and David Davis need to clarify whether they want Britain to stay close to Europe or gravitate to US trade rules before the UK can strike meaningful post-Brexit deals, according to Gonzalez, who is a former European Union negotiator and head of the trade practice division at top law firm Dechert.

She said: ‘If we were doing this rationally we’d ask, ‘What is our trade policy? What do we really want to protect? Where are our interests, and where, in the medium to long term, are we not going to be very competitive, frankly?’ ‘

Gonzalez said the UK had to decide in which sectors it wanted to stay close to EU rules, because of significant trade links, and where it wanted to move to a US regulatory model.

Gonzalez expects a transitional agreement in 2018 that would lock in current arrangements, alongside a statement of principles about a future free trade agreement.

This would be likely to include rules to stop the UK from slashing taxes and business regulation. She said: ‘I think it’s clearer where we are going to end up in 2019.’

Gonzalez said the financial services sector had been ‘erratic’ in its attitude to Brexit, throwing in the towel too early on the chance of getting single market benefits.

She said: ‘It moved very early to say it accepted that it would not get the single market. Now there’s a lot of speculation about different models, but we may not start negotiations on those until after March 2019.’

She said it would be better to keep all options open until an opportunity to negotiate a good deal for financial services comes up.