The following , taken from todays Irish Times needs to be considered carefully in London.
" EU Commissioner
Phil Hogan has warned Britain that negotiations with the United States over a trade deal post-Brexit will be more difficult than expected.
“It won’t be as easy as the United Kingdom thinks,” he said in Washington. Asked at an event at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies if there was a need for trilateral negotiations between the US, UK and the EU on the issue, Mr Hogan replied: “There’ll be no three-way negotiation. That’s a matter for the United Kingdom and the United States.”
Mr Hogan was speaking during his first visit to Washington since his appointment as the EU’s trade commissioner.
He said that discussions he had this week with senior figures in
Congress, including on the Ways and Means committee, suggested that talks between the US and the UK will be more challenging than expected.
Mr Hogan also criticised British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson for putting a timescale for the conclusion of a trade agreement between the EU and UK. “Prime minister Johnson I think unwisely decided that he wants a deadline again,” he said.
“Gamesmanship and brinksmanship is not going to work on this occasion.”
Noting that the Conservative government has a majority of eighty, he criticised the decision to impose a timeline on the next phase of the negotiations. “What we got instead was a cliff edge again.” Mr Johnson is expected to visit Washington next month.
Mr Hogan also warned that the EU is poised to impose tariffs on the United States over the ongoing Boeing-
Airbus dispute.
Speaking in Washington, Mr Hogan said the EU regrets the “choice of the US to move ahead with tariffs in the Airbus case, and the recent announcement to potentially subject additional EU products to tariffs”.
“There’ll be no three-way negotiation. That’s a matter for the United Kingdom and the United States.”
Is a key phrase, and big Phil is noted for blunt speaking
www.economist.com
