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Centre for European Reform research fellow Sam Lowe added: “The British request to have British qualifications recognised by default, subject to terms and conditions, goes far beyond the EU-Japan deal, or the CETA deal with Canada.“This is not necessarily impossible but it is not the kind of things the EU hands readily in its free trade agreements.”

Centre for European Reform research fellow Sam Lowe added: “The British request to have British qualifications recognised by default, subject to terms and conditions, goes far beyond the EU-Japan deal, or the Ceta deal with Canada.
“This is not necessarily impossible but it is not the kind of things the EU hands readily in its free trade agreements.”

But interestingly, a few days ago, an article was released in London about how Covid-19 is transforming how the European Union works, by Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. Despite the fact that the UK has left the EU, Grant remains one of the most informed and acute experts and he highlights the following as what he sees as undesirable trends for Europe:

An advantage of the U.K.’s announcement is that it helps its ongoing trade negotiations with the EU, the U.S and Japan, because it makes clear what the default duties would be if no agreement is reached in these talks, according to Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.Britain’s plan also marks a walk-back from the temporary tariff schedule it proposed in the event of a no-deal Brexit last year, which would have seen 87% of U.K. imports made tariff-free. That proposal was criticized for giving away too much British leverage in future trade talks.

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said a “big offer” on agriculture would be necessary to make any trade deal acceptable to the Trump administration and US Congress. “The US has long seen its beef, chicken and pork shut out of European markets because of high tariffs and restrictive regulations. If the UK is able to table an offer that deals with all of these concerns, then a trade deal can be done,” he said, adding that such concessions “might prove controversial with British farmers and consumers”.

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said a trade deal could be done with the Trump administration if there was a “big offer” on agriculture.

Ian Bond, a former British diplomat who is director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, a think tank, said it would be hard for the EEAS to take a firmer line on China — given that foreign policy decisions need unanimous agreement at EU level."You're always going to be stuck with the lowest common denominator," said Bond.Individual member countries have also been reluctant to take a tough line with Beijing, on which they are increasingly economically dependent, he said.

Charles Grant, from the Centre for European Reform, said: “I think the EU will set three conditions for this, which will be very very hard for Boris Johnson’s Government to comply with. “The first condition is a so-called level-playing field — the EU will insist that our rules on social and environmental standards, state aid, taxation are automatically updated to follow EU rules. “Because they’re very worried, genuinely worried, that we will turn into Singapore-on-Thames, kind of slash and burn, cut our regulations and steal lots of investment from them by being a deregulated economy.”