RE: Lasttrain2 Feb 2019 20:00
With the right business incentives etc
TM and her cronies are ruining any chance of successful future trade deals Janet D in the Teleg comments
What had been done was now being undone. The word of the British prime minister, given in apparent solemn good faith, could be trusted only until she came under political pressure.
Just for a millisecond, Barnier, Juncker and Co had the moral high ground: Brussels could quite legitimately say that she had spent two years negotiating the Withdrawal Agreement and then personally signed it off in defiance of her own Cabinet (which had been sidelined) and her own party (which had been ignored), only to renege on it and demand the undoing of one of its most critical tenets, the Irish border backstop, whose problematic nature she and her team had clearly failed to anticipate.
What had been done was now being undone. The word of the British prime minister, given in apparent solemn good faith, could be trusted only until she came under political pressure.
There is an obvious conclusion to be drawn here: Brussels must presumably run on the assumption in all future dealings with the UK – at least under its present management – that nothing it says can be relied upon.
Whatever is signed, sealed and embedded into the arrangements for our exit, must be taken as unreliable and subject to revision or outright repudiation in the future (perhaps the immediate future).
This is a very dangerous and destabilising basis for any kind of business relationship, let alone an international trade deal.
There is an obvious conclusion to be drawn here: Brussels must presumably run on the assumption in all future dealings with the UK – at least under its present management – that nothing it says can be relied upon.
Whatever is signed, sealed and embedded into the arrangements for our exit, must be taken as unreliable and subject to revision or outright repudiation in the future (perhaps the immediate future).
This is a very dangerous and destabilising basis for any kind of business relationship, let alone an international trade deal.