Texts previously only shared by the UK negotiators with the EU counterparts are now available on line Click here. They include a draft free-trade agreement, draft fisheries plan, draft energy deal, and draft law enforcement and judicial cooperation proposal. The fisheries framework is mostly a series of headings covering key issues such as annual negotiations on fishing opportunities and access, fisheries management, co-operation and data sharing. The detail will no doubt be fleshed out as negotiations proceed.
The draft legal texts were accompanied by a letter from the U.K. chief negotiator David Frost to his EU counterpart Michel Barnier, “as a constructive contribution to the negotiations” and “to help explain our proposals in more detail to Member States”. in which he counters the arguments the EU has made for its demands in the negotiations.
“At this moment in negotiations, what is on offer is not a fair free trade relationship between close economic partners, but a relatively low-quality trade agreement coming with unprecedented EU oversight of our laws and institutions,” Frost writes. However, he ends with a positive note, hoping “that in the weeks to come the EU will think again about its proposals in a way that will enable us to then find a rapid and constructive alternative way forward.”
Further insight into the complexities and potential implications can be seen in an analysis of ownership of fishing quotas which shows that more than half of the value of England’s quote is foreign-owned click here.
The next round of Brexit negotiations will be held the week of June 1.