EU official on DD’s suggestion that whole of UK will align with EU regs. “The UK will not have any say on the decisions taken in Brussels and will basically implement them without having any influence over them… it makes the UK kind of a regulatory ‘protectorate” of Brussels'”.

I like the phrase regulatory protectorate.

It’s what the leavers would have wanted.

You could have alignment if you had equivalence which is the test often used in trade deals.

I’m now reappraising the whole situation

Theresa May is actually the most devastatingly effective and cunning politician this country has ever seen.

She campaigned for remain, but once the vote was lost, she set about accidentally becoming prime minister, then she appointed the 3 biggest vainglorious clowns imaginable to sort out the details of Brexit.

She tried her damnedest to get her party booted out before they could do too much damage, by running the worst campaign anyone had ever seen. But she didn’t bank on the labour party and Jeremy Corbyn. So despite her best efforts it was on to plan B… letting the Brexiteers just get on with it

Fast forward to now, as her deliberately contradictory shambles leads to the abandonment of the last of the laughable red lines

So… we’re staying in the single market, staying in the customs union (but we’ll refer to that as something else), which will involve paying into the EU budget and retaining freedom of movement

Theresa… we salute you! 😀

Thanks mattjg.

So hypothetically, we would go to the EU and ask “can we apply these regulations which are mutually agreed?” to which the answer could feasibly be “No, you need to revise the regs to meet a minimum standard”, thus the stronger partner in the relationship gets to dictate the rules?

That would explain the caveat about this being applicable only in event of a trade deal being agreed.

[edit] Thanks also mefty for the nicely summed up sentence.

Like … our bananas have the same bend as their bananas but they measure in degrees but we use radians?

thus the stronger partner in the relationship gets to dictate the rules?

there is no partnership. they set the rules we comply.

retaining freedom of movement

Good, retention of my FOM, & especially for my kids, is my red line.

Theresa May is actually the most devastatingly effective and cunning politician this country has ever seen.

Haha!

I can’t help but feel that we missed an opportunity of a lifetime by not electing Lord Buckethead.

there is no partnership. they set the rules we comply.

Kind of where I was going with this…

…now, sooner or later someone will have the radical idea that if we become a member state of this trading bloc, we can influence the rules from within, no?

…now, sooner or later someone will have the radical idea that if we become a member state of this trading bloc, we can influence the rules from within, no?

yes but that requires the other members of the bloc to give up a bit of their precious “sovrintee”.

obviously that would never happen, the nation state is king!

if we become a member state of this trading bloc, we can influence the rules from within, no?

Who would let us join after how we’ve behaved this time?

but we’re already in it!

phew that’s OK then, nothing to see here.

there is no partnership. they set the rules we comply.

Not how equivalence works. Barnier when the boot was on the other foot:

Where the rules of another country are comparable and consistent with the objectives of US law, it is reasonable to expect US authorities to rely on those rules and recognise activities regulated under them as compliant.”

Mefty – two similar sized economies talking. Not like the EU and UK.
They will set the rules. We’ll follow. Of course in theory this won’t happen. In practice it will.

In some sectors (electric vehicles for example) there is s lots of concern that is already starting to happen (regardless of us having a couple of car plants).

They agreed the same with Canada

Thx Mefty.

Presumably that means the complier playing tag-along, and continual equivalence testing?

Ultimately the complier has to have the same outcome to any tests, no?

So there would need to be a supranational court of law to arbitrate?

It won’t happen in reality.

Q- Whats the difference between the Tories negotiating Brexit and a piece of paper?

A- theres a limit to the number of times that a piece of paper will fold

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuG_CeEZV6w[/video]

So there would need to be a supranational court of law to arbitrate?

Dispute resolution will be part of any agreement, but the WTO plays an extensive role in trade dispute resolution. My impression is that you look at whether the regime achieves the agreed end result or purpose – this is also how EU directives work – there may be different ways of achieving that result so it isn’t automatic that you have like for like regulation.

One piece of serious but (very) blue sky thinking that was put forward to get around the customs union mess is if the UK contracted with the EU to run the EU border on its behalf. So goods continue to enter the EU at Harwich, Southampton, Heathrow etc. and the new “international” borders at Dover, Fishguard, NI etc. are treated as if they were intra EU.

If the UK adopted the same customs tariff as the EU – and there is no reason why it wouldn’t, it would mean business as usual, as far as Customs borders are concerned.

It would all hang on the will of UK and EU politicians to try and make sense of this mess though.

But that only covers tariffs – what about non-tariff restrictions such as the UK accepting disinfected chicken and the EU not?

I don’t know about disinfected chickens, but I was watching the head of DEFRA (or the head of the bit that deals with plant and animal health) in front of the Select Committee stating they had no plans to change the way they handled any imports of plants or animals.

He had no control over how other countries chose to treat our exports of plants and animals though.

I think the theory is the UK’s rules are not the same as the EU’s but the outcome is, where necessary.

Essentially like Like BS, EN and CE approval then? In most cases products are cross compliant.

It would, I think, be useful to have some examples of where regulatory alignment versus regulatory non-divergence actually makes a practical difference to someone, say in respect of agriculture and food.

Are you going back to impérial ?

Not really, politicians are concerned about the perception of the deal as much as the detail, the press were reporting that the DUP had been sold out and that perception is clearly unacceptable to them. Everyone will grandstand for a few days to prove they can’t be pushed around, talks will hang by a thread, and then an agreement will be reached.

Yes but why settle for a black instant when you can have a full fat frothy double shot latte?

A THM question that I can find a straight answer to; I much perfer black instant, it tastes of coffee rather than an industrial milk derivative.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/05/under-fire-from-both-sides-david-davis-retreats-into-his-shell

This is what our politics has become as a result of Brexit.

Desperate stuff.

I’m sure lots of Brexiteers would indeed like to go back to the days of the empire.

Davies latest bit of nonsense. Apparently the no regulatory divergence or whatever silly words he used would apply to the whole of the UK not just NI.

Now thats going to upset the Rabids because that means no lowering of standards thus no trade deal with the US amongst others.

He really is dim

Ahh Imperial I knew those BSW and AF spanners would come back into fashion.

I can start using terms like “a couple of thou” again…

Red herring – if we export to the EU markets we will have to match their standards what ever arrangement we trade under. Funny how a piece of Brexshit BS has now been hjqcked by remoaners

Do you ever sleep or is there a team of THMers monitoring this thread around the clock?

Six of us zippy !

We dip in between mewtings, when databases are updating or when travelling. Then share the fun 😉

Are you going back to impérial ?

They haven’t gone away, you know?

Red herring – if we export to the EU markets we will have to match their standards what ever arrangement we trade under.

Red herring – this lovely fact has nothing to do with anything it could possibly have been a response to on this page.

Funny how a piece of Brexshit BS has now been hjqcked by remoaners

Twaddle. Nonsense. Troll muttering.

Because Angry People in Local Newspapers go a bit swivel-eyed when the council tries to use metric.

“Some people say kids are taught in metres — but kids don’t go down there. It’s just us golden oldies.
We’ve fought and won two world wars and finally won our referendum to come out of the European Union.
But now we are producing pathway signs in kilometres.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2857472/brexit-backing-town-outraged-after-council-erects-eu-style-signposts-with-distances-in-metric-measurements/

😀

(this is completely irrelevant to Brexit of course)

“This Irish stuff” – good old IDS.

The media & a lot of Brexit MPs trying to at best denigrate at worst villify Ireland at the moment, as if we needed more Brexit whipped up xenophobia !