EU won’t back trade deal If Britain chooses ‘Singapore-on-Thames’

GENEVA (April 13): European Union states are unlikely to ratify a post-Brexit trade deal with the British government should the UK seek to recast itself as a regulation-light “Singapore-on-Thames,” according to the EU’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

“They don’t want a free-rider on their doorstep,” Ambassador Marc Vanheukelen said in an interview in Geneva. The EU’s 27 member states and 34 national and regional parliaments would balk at such a plan, he said.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she would rather have no deal than a bad deal with the EU, in part because “we would have the freedom to set the competitive tax rates” aimed at luring foreign businesses and investors. Failure to find a deal -- “the cliff edge” -- would see the UK’s trading relations with the EU governed by WTO rules, a scenario that would cause turmoil, particularly for British companies, said Vanheukelen.

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