Brexit transition deal to be agreed by end of March, David Davis says

The Brexit secretary appeared before the committee on Wednesday
PA
Martin Coulter24 January 2018
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David Davis has said a Brexit transition deal should be agreed with the EU before the end of March.

Appearing before the Commons Exiting the EU committee on Wednesday morning, the Brexit secretary said such a timeframe had been "pretty much intimated" by the EU Commission.

Mr Davis said: "I would expect it before the end of March. It wasn’t said in terms, but that was pretty much intimated in the Commission’s briefing documents in December.”

He also said he wanted "substantive" negotiations on Britain's future relationship with the EU to be concluded by the time it leaves the bloc in March 2019.

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Mr Davis said it would be a mistake to allow negotiations to carry on into the proposed transition period following Brexit.

"It would be unwise to get sucked into a negotiation during the transition period itself which is substantive, major," he said.

"Why? Because the balance of power in the negotiation alters. The aim then on the part of the commission would be to spin out the negotiation."

Mr Davis went on to say he expected a clash with the European Union over whether the UK will be able to seek its own trade deals during the transition period.

He insisted that the transition period was not a "deferral" of Brexit, even though the UK will follow Brussels' rules.

"Firstly we will not be members of the union, we will be replicating to a very large extent the operations of the single market and customs union in order to make sure there is a single change, from the point of view of businesses in particular.

"We will not be subject to the duty of sincere co-operation, which is what stops us arriving at trade deals now, negotiating and signing trade deals now, so that freedom will exist."

But he added: "There may be an argument over the issue of doing outside negotiations, there may well be an argument over that."

The UK's approach was one that "visibly does no harm to the European Union" but "there are people within the union who want to restrict any advantage for us."

Britain's transition deal with the EU is expected to last until at least December 2020.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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