The IoD says the UK government must provide more clarity about what it wants from phase two of Brexit talks
ADVERTISEMENTA deal on trade has been described as the "ultimate prize" in the Brexit talks.
The UK cabinet is due to discuss phase 2 of the talks before Christmas and what they're going to consider is the so-called Canada+++ deal, something along the lines of the agreement Brussels signed recently with Ottawa.
Allie Renison, head of Europe and Trade Policy at the Institute of Directors in the UK, spoke to euronews about what we can expect.
AR: "From what we understand transitional negotiations will be authorised right away. The legislation the EU has to draw up to get that role will be tied away, but we don't think they're actually going to start negotiating a new trade agreement until March, and while I think transition is very important for our members, because it will allow them to continue their day-to-day business operations without worrying that something, they're not going to have the certainty of knowing that trade relations will stay the same for the next few years."
"What we really want to see now, particularly from the UK government is clarity about what its objectives are for that "end state" relationship; because we've had 12-16 months of discussions here in the UK about what it doesn't want. It doesn't want to be in the single market, it doesn't want to be in customs union. What we want to know now, what is it that it actually wants from the EU in the future.
TS, euronews: And what does the IoD want? What's the best case scenario?
AR: Most manufacturing business would prefer the UK to be in some sort of customs union with the EU. It appears as if the prime minister has ruled that out and so what we want is that if it has to take a Canada-type style relationship, because I think there are a lot of businesses for whom customs processes suddenly appearing between the UK and EU will be quite an unwelcome destruction to business so, something that minimizes the amount of divergence.