What the cabinet has agreed at Chequers Brexit meeting
So as we draw nearer to the Brexit deadline – what are the bones of the deal the PM has (or thinks she has) hammered out with the cabinet? This article tells us:
Harmonisation on goods
The statement says the UK will “maintain a common rulebook for all goods” including agricultural products after Brexit, with the UK committing via treaty on continued harmonisation, thus avoiding border friction.
Parliament would have oversight of such rules, it adds, and can choose to not continue harmonisation “recognising that this would have consequences”. However, the proposal says protections in areas such as the environment, employment laws and consumer protection would not fall below current levels.
The arrangement would see looser arrangements for services, with a recognition this will involve less mutual access to markets than currently.
Joint jurisdiction of rules
The plan proposes what is termed a “joint institutional framework” for interpreting UK-EU agreements, to be carried out in each jurisdiction by the respective courts. However, decisions by UK courts would involve “due regard paid to EU caselaw in areas where the UK continued to apply a common rulebook”.
The system would include joint committees, or binding independent arbitration in the case of disputes, which would have reference to the European court of justice (ECJ) “as the interpreter of EU rules”.
The government statement puts forward the idea of the so-called facilitated customs arrangement, May’s new attempt at a compromise system that could be acceptable to her cabinet Brexiters and to Brussels.
This would see the UK and EU avoid hard borders by being treated as a “combined customs territory”. Under this, the UK would apply domestic tariffs and trade policies for goods intended for the UK, and their EU equivalents for goods heading into the EU.
This would, the document says, let a post-Brexit UK set its own tariffs for trade with the rest of the world without causing border disruption. The statement says the new arrangements would prevent a hard Irish border, ensuring the “backstop” elements of the initial withdrawal agreement would not be needed.