Bank of England (AFP / Geoff Caddick)
London: Britain needs to make clear to the European Union that it is prepared to go it alone if it fails to reach a satisfactory deal in Brexit talks, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said yesterday.
King - who said in December that Britain should leave the EU’s single market and possibly its customs union - said his country needed to be able to show that it had a clear plan of how it would manage without an EU trade deal.
“If you are going to have any successful negotiation, you have got to have a fall-back position, which the other side understands and believes is credible,” King said in a BBC radio interview to mark 10 years since the start of the global financial crisis.
Britain is due to leave the EU in March 2019 and began its formal exit talks in June.
Initial areas of disagreement include Britain’s financial liabilities, the rights of EU citizens already living in Britain, and border arrangements between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, an EU member.
If Britain fails to reach a deal, trade would be governed by the WTO, which allows both sides to impose import tariffs and customs checks, and does not replicate existing agreements on sectors such as airlines and financial services.
