Saturday 30 September 2017

JAPAN TIMES Brexit Headlines: 1 Sep - 30 Sep 2017

The Japan Times
Brexit Headlines
As Brexit looms, Romania makes case for Japanese investment

BUSINESSSEP 20, 2017

Romanian commerce minister Ilan Laufer said Wednesday his country is becoming an attractive destination for Japanese investment following Britain's decision to leave the European Union and the Japan-EU free trade agreement. With Brexit, "the entire center of Europe is moving to the east," Laufer said ...



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Backing Brexit Britain: The businesses ploughing ahead with expansion plans despite doom-laden forecasts



Brexit raised fears that business spending – particularly from firms headquartered in other EU nations – would slow to a trickle as companies turned off the taps and hunkered down for a recession.

A new investment means 25,000 brioches pour off this new machine every hour CREDIT: BRIOCHE PASQUIER
The scent of freshly baked brioche fills the air. French accents chatter to and fro across the room. But this is not a pretty little Gallic boulangerie. This is an industrial estate in Milton Keynes where a French bakery has just opened a new production line.
Every hour 25,000 brioches pour off the shining new machine, the second installed in this immaculate, gleaming facility.
Brioche Pasquier, still run by the Pasquier family that once ran a typical local bakery, has spent £40m on the site since buying the land in 2014. And in post-Brexit Britain, it has plans to spend more.
This bucks expectations in terms of UK investment.
Immediately after the referendum the average economist thought fixed...

To continue reading this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/09/30/backing-brexit-britain-businesses-ploughing-ahead-expansion/

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Tory Conference: Brexiteers demand Theresa May quit EU talks if Brussels says no to trade negotiations

A letter demands the Prime Minister use the threat of crashing out of the EU without a deal 
30 September 2017


Hardline Brexiteers have demanded Theresa May walk away from Brexit talks if the EU refuses to discuss future trade before Christmas.
MPs and others in the Leave Means Leave group penned a letter to the Prime Minister saying she should call the EU’s bluff and drop negotiations if Brussels does not allow progress.
Brexit talks are currently progressing at a snail’s pace, with Ms May’s speech in Florence having brought some momentum but the EU still insisting Britain settle its financial obligations, guarantee EU citizens’ rights and properly address the Irish border issue before any trade deal is discussed.

Ruth Davidson hits out at Brexiteers ‘selling people short’

It comes as Boris Johnson also set out his redlines for Brexit, further aggravating cabinet tensions, while Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson called for “serious people” to take charge of Brexit. 
The Leave Means Leave group stated in its letter: “If the EU is not seriously negotiating a free trade deal by Christmas 2017, the Government should give formal notice that we will move to World Trade Organisation rules in March 2019.”
Signatories calling for the hardline stance include former Brexit minister David Jones, and the issue is set to feature heavily at the Tory conference.
Leaving with no deal as they suggest would mean high tariffs on both EU and UK goods, with more moderate members of the Conservative party warning it would be a catastrophe for the economy. 
Mr Johnson also used his interview with The Sun to clearly set out his Brexit redlines, which constrain Ms May’s position and further strain tensions with other ministers like Philip Hammond and Ms Davidson seeking a more jobs- and economy-focused Brexit.  
With the Foreign Secretary recently having hailed Britain’s “glorious” future outside the EU, Ms Davidson used an interview with The Times to call for serious people to take charge of Brexit. 
As the party faithful converge on Manchester, the Prime Minister insisted Labour was “unfit to govern” as she pledged to listen to the concerns of young voters after the Tories lost their Commons majority in the snap general election in June.
Ms May said: “As Conservatives, we have a vision of a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few – precisely the direction I set when I became Prime Minister last year.
“I understand the concerns raised, particularly by young people, during what was a disappointing election for my party.
“So my determination to act on those concerns, and crucially, to fulfil the promise of my first speech on the steps of Downing Street, is greater than ever.”
Ms May added that the conference would see the party “setting out our road to a better future for you and your family”.
She said: “Yes, we have to get the best Brexit deal – but we must also take action here at home to make this a fairer place to live for ordinary working people.
“The social contract in our country is that the next generation should always have it better than the last.
“Conservatives have a plan to make that a reality.”
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Boris Johnson has no place in a 'responsible government', says Nicky Morgan on eve of Conservative conference

Exclusive: The Treasury Select Committee Chair warned that the Foreign Secretary could be the 'undoing' of the Conservatives




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Nicky Morgan has written a scathing attack on Boris Johnson and other Brexiteers Getty

An ex-cabinet minister has said Boris Johnson has “no place in a responsible government” following his repeated media interventions on Brexit, which have destabilised Theresa May’s leadership.
Writing exclusively for The Independent, Nicky Morgan accused Mr Johnson of a “dereliction” of duty and said his endless currying of favour with hardline Brexiteers is leading Jeremy Corbyn to Downing Street and the Conservatives to “our undoing as a party”.
Ms Morgan, who chairs the influential Treasury Committee, hit out at Mr Johnson for setting out his own Brexit “red lines”, which she argued diverged from Ms May’s plans and showed no regard for the financial security of millions of Leave backing voters.

Boris wants to push Theresa out, but it is too late now

Her attack comes as Mr Johnson faces a broader Tory backlash from MPs and ministers following an interview in The Sun that further stoked speculation about his leadership ambitions, as he set out his Brexit demands and strayed well outside his Foreign Office brief.   
Former education secretary Ms Morgan penned her piece following its publication, saying: “The UK Government should be focusing on getting the UK out of the EU in the least damaging way, not debating arbitrary red lines set down to try to curry favour with those who want a utopian ultra-free trade, low tax, minimal regulation state.
“Those who are pushing this agenda have no place in a responsible government – it is a dereliction of the duty to act in the national interest. And it has to stop.”
She argued Mr Johnson appeared to see Ms May’s recent speech in Florence as a compromise which “takes him and ardent Brexiteers away…from the low tax, minimal regulation state” they want.

Brexit: the deciders

She added: “Those who think that Brexit offers an opportunity to move to some low tax, almost off-shore de-regulatory haven don’t seem to care about the threat posed by Corbyn. They need to wake up.
“Not only is there no appetite for their vision amongst the electorate, it isn’t smart economics and would be our undoing as a party.”

READ MORE

The backlash also emerged elsewhere, with Tory MP Simon Hart taking to Twitter in the wake of Mr Johnson’s interview to say: “Have I missed something or has Boris Johnson suddenly been given some new role and authority in all this?”
A cabinet minister told The Independent Mr Johnson is becoming increasingly isolated on the frontbench because he is destabilising his party and country for the sake of his own career, in the hope he can win a future leadership battle with the support of Brexit backing Tories.
On Saturday Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also attacked Brexiteers who she said are “selling people short” by being over-optimistic about withdrawal, and said policy on should be left to “serious” people. 
Ken Clarke: In normal times, Boris Johnson would have been sacked over his Brexitmessaging
But Mr Johnson will not have missed polling showing his high profile interventions over Brexit have launched him into first position in a recent poll of favourites for next leader among party members, who have the deciding say.
He is insisting any Brexit transition period must not last "a second more" than two years, that the UK should not abide by new EU rules during that time and Britain must not make payments to Brussels after it, adding that there can be “no monkeying around”.
He even used his interview on Saturday to stray into the territory of Chancellor Philip Hammond, his Cabinet rival in the Brexit debate, to demand that the minimum wage rise faster than it is due to.
Mr Johnson’s intervention came as a letter by leading Brexiteers demanded Ms May abandon negotiations with Brussels if the EU does not agree to talk about a future trade deal by Christmas.

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UKIP leader right we should threaten to ditch Brexit talks

We are pointlessly allowing ourselves to be bullied by Brussels. We know how to deal with bullies. Stand up to them, tell them it is we who won't proceed to the next stage of Brexit talks if they don't buck their ideas up, and see how long Barnier and company's fake tough guy act can last


Barnier
Barnier isn't serious about a deal
The_commentator_logo_updated9
the commentator
On 30 September 2017 12:26
UKIP still has something to contribute after all. Its newly elected leader Henry Bolton's first public intervention since being elected last week was to urge the British government to be prepared to ditch Brexit talks with Michel Barnier and his motley crew leading the EU side in Brexit talks.
"I actually do not credit some of the people in the European Union with any wish whatsoever to have a smooth deal. There are other people who are more constructive in Brussels. But I think it’s going to be incredibly difficult to achieve a deal," the Guardian quoted him as saying yestereday.
“I do not believe we should be pushing this out and allowing the negotiations to be endless before we leave. It is absolutely crucial that this country is fully prepared to walk away because otherwise the European Union is just going to be negotiating forever on this and they would just string us along.”
He is absolutely right. Barnier is part of the cadre of Brussels apparatchicks which believes that Britain should be "punished" for its decision to quit the EU. He wants to create as many artificial problems as possible so as to discourage other countries from following Britain out of the door.
Barnier is thus not negotiating in good faith, and Bolton is right on target in warning that we risk being strung along.
We should call the EU's bluff. Prime Minister May has gone on record as saying that no deal is better than a bad deal, but now, after Angela Merkel appears to have secured another term as German Chancellor, is the time for Britain to ramp it up a notch.
As things stand, we have allowed ourselves to be put permanently on the back foot. We wait in fevered anticipation for Brussels to tell us that we are being good boys and girls and that we can, if we continue to behave ourselves, be allowed to move to the next phase of negotiations.
We need to reverse that power dynamic. We have all the cards. It is Brussels that cannot afford to let us leave without a deal, not the other way around. Just think about it. Imagine we walked away in 2019, started trading on WTO rules, and then did very well all the same.
Now that would be a green light for other countries to leave the EU with no fear whatsoever of the consequences.
If it comes down to the optics, Brussels needs to posit Britain as an exceptional case that did well because it got the kind of deal that would never be afforded to others. If we just show them the finger and walk away, all the while suffering no negative consequences at all, that would be a truly disastrous outcome for the Brussels establishment.
As leading US economist Dan Mitchell points out:
"Failure to reach a deal (also known as a “hard Brexit”) isn’t the end of the world. It’s not even a bad outcome. A hard Brexit simply means that the U.K. trades with Europe under the default rules of the World Trade Organization. That’s not complete, unfettered free trade, but it means only modest trade barriers."
"And since Britain trades quite successfully with the rest of the world under those rules, there’s no reason to fear a collapse of trade with Europe."
Exactly.
The fact is that we are pointlessly allowing ourselves to be bullied. One thing bullies can't cope with is when people turn round and push back at them.
We should tell Brussels that unless Barnier changes his tune, it is we who will not proceed to the next stage of Brexit talks. Then we'll see just how tough these eurocrats really are.
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