Reuters: EU and Britain to present post-Brexit plan on WTO membership

17 July 2017

The European Union and Britain plan to put forward a joint proposal for reform of the terms of their World Trade Organization (WTO) membership in September or October, an EU source said, as London negotiates to leave the EU.

The two sides are also discussing sharing liabilities from trade disputes including WTO litigation over Airbus subsidies in a long-running case with the United States, the EU source said.

“Currently we are in talks with the United Kingdom to come to a joint approach on the matter, on all the aspects of the divorce, with regard to the WTO. And I would think that, come the month of September/October, we will be able to come jointly to the rest of the (WTO) membership,” the EU source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The joint approach would address aspects of the EU's WTO membership terms, known as its WTO "schedules", that are not easily split between Britain and the other 27 EU members: agricultural tariff quotas, agricultural subsidies and commitments on services trade.

“The plan is (that) we would explain together how we would see the disentanglement of the United Kingdom from the EU commitments and schedules,” the source said. [...]

Full article on Reuters


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