Daily Management Review

Seven Weeks Time Period , Says Theresa May, For Agreement On Brexit Transition Deal


02/07/2018




Seven Weeks Time Period , Says Theresa May, For Agreement On Brexit Transition Deal
Alling concerns that a Brexit transition period would take a long time to reach, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that it would be seven weeks that the U.K. and the European Union would be able to come to an agreement about the transition.
 
A status quo transition for the U.K. until the end of 2020 has been offered by the EU. Both the parties are attempting to come to an agreement by march end on the transition which would then form the basis for the final withdrawal treaty that is expected to be reached later in 2018.
 
But smaller details like the scope of European Court of Justice jurisdiction and the status of EU citizens till such time that the transition happens continues to be issues of disagreement inside May's Conservative Party.
 
There are concerns among many businesses and banks that there could be a tussle related to the terms of a transition which could get delayed or even ruin am agreement for the exit of U.K. from the EU scheduled for March 29, 2019.
 
"In seven weeks time, we will have an agreement with the European Union, that is the timetable they have said on an implementation period," May told the BBC in an interview in China.
 
"What the British people voted for is for us to take back control of our money, our borders and our laws and that's exactly what we are going to do," May said of Brexit.
 
The framework of a trade deal and a deal on Britain's exit is hoped to be ironed out by October of 2018 by both the EU and Britain.
 
But in case May is unable to provide details of Britain's demands for a trade agreement, there could be danger of slippage of the plan of endorsement by the leaders of both sides of negotiating guidelines which would form the basis of a new phase of talks for a possible future trade deal scheduled to start in April, say some EU officials.
 
A few weeks would be needed by the EU to get its own negotiating proposals ready once May details Britain’s negotiating terms on trade deal. And it would take just weeks for negotiations to start once the leaders from both sides are able to adopted a draft.
 
But it would not be until late June when there would be a full EU summit for EU to set out its negotiating deal if the March deadline is missed. That would mean that there would be very little time for the two parties to agree on for a broad framework for and a political declaration about the future trade plans.
 
"We still expect to be able to have the trade guidelines for the March summit," one senior EU official told the media. "But Theresa May is being so discreet. If she doesn't say what she wants, we may not be able to prepare our position in time."
 
(Source:www.cnbc.com)