The 46-language document covers a wide range of policy areas, from fisheries to security cooperation. The agreement should be structured as an EU `association agreement`, the heart of which is a trade agreement. The EU`s negotiating position on the issue of equal competition is due to the geographical proximity and economic interdependence of the UK and the EU, and the EU is therefore concerned that a deregulated economy on its doorstep could have a significant negative economic impact on its own economy. If the UK agreed to accept these same competition obligations, the “price” of duty-free and non-quota goods with the EU would be something that no other trading partner has ever obtained. It should also be noted that, with the exception of Russia, all of the EU`s direct neighbours are in any form of trade agreements with the EU, which involve near-total adoption (as in the case of EEA countries) or at least partially (as in the case of Ukraine) certain EU directives and regulations. Just to clarify what is meant by “Irish backstop,” the draft withdrawal agreement provided that after Brexit day there would be a “transition period” during which the UK would remain in the single market and customs union and continue to trade with the EU, as is the case today. During this transition period, the UK government negotiated its future relations with the EU, including trade rules. The draft withdrawal agreement provided that the “Irish backstop” would come into force at the end of the transition period if the UK and the EU had not negotiated a future trade agreement that would have kept the Irish border as open as it is today. In the context of the “backstop”, the whole of the United Kingdom would enter a “single customs territory” with the EU, meaning that there would be no tariffs on trade in goods between the UK and the EU and that some trade restrictions would be lifted (although not all of them). However, only Northern Ireland would be aligned with some additional EU rules to ensure that the Irish border remains as open as it is today. These separate rules for Northern Ireland would have had the effect of requiring certain controls to be carried out on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Moreover, the British government had proposed the British backstop as an alternative to the initial EU proposal, which would have applied the customs union only to Northern Ireland. The second development came this afternoon, when Lord Keen resigned as General Counsel for Scotland and said in his resignation letter: “Last week I found it increasingly difficult to reconcile, in my view, my duties as legal counsel with your political intentions with regard to the Internal Market Act. I have tried to find a respectable argument in favour of the provisions of clauses 42 to 45 of the bill, but it is clear now that this will not be consistent with your political intentions. This is the second resignation of a judicial officer as a result of this legislation, the head of the government`s legal department, Sir Jonathan Jones, who resigned last week. As I said earlier, under the Temporary Parliaments Act of 2011, a Prime Minister cannot declare an election at some point in his election. By law, they must have the support of at least two-thirds of MPs – in other words, at least 434 MPs should give the go-ahead for an early election. Labour MPs appear to be demanding that the party leadership delay the adoption of a general election after 31 October due to Boris Johnson`s weakening, forcing him to ask for a delay in Brexit and break his central election promise.