LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JUNE 2018 51
| BREXIT |
scenario. "CETA took 10," he says.
A freshly uncoupled UK would probably
like to hammer out scores bilateral deals
but with the clock ticking, one problem
bedevilling its government is the lack of
seasoned negotiators. e reason is that
Britain — the world's fih-largest econo-
my — hasn't needed to negotiate its own
trade deals since it joined the EU in 1973.
Brussels negotiates for the block.
"Since the UK hasn't needed to have in-
ternal trade expertise for well over 40 years
they need to recruit from elsewhere," says
Matthew Kronby, a partner at Bennett
Jones LLP in Toronto. "at's proving a
challenge because the salaries they can of-
fer are not particularly attractive, especially
given the cost of living in London." Kron-
by was director general of the Government
of Canada's Trade Law Bureau from 2009
trade and none had directly carried out
trade negotiations.
e UK government has budgeted mil-
lions of pounds to hire and train staff to
negotiate trade deals, and Trade Minister
Mark Price told Parliament this summer
that over 200 staff in the department have
already undertaken training in trade policy.
Kronby says he's not as pessimistic as
some others about the chances of Britain
and the Canada striking a quick deal. "e
year and nine months transition period is
certainly not a long time," he says. But us-
ing CETA as a template, he says, "a lot of
the heavy liing has already been done," al-
though there would still be issues on quota
allocations for goods that are subject to
tariff-rate quotas, and other issues.
"It's not like it would be a really simple
negotiation, but it's not impossible. It
to 2012 and the Government of Canada's
lead lawyer in the CETA negotiation.
He says the UK government has its work
cut out for it. "I don't think there are a lot
of people with expertise in this sector who
want to leave the private sector for a UK
government salary, or who want to relocate
from the public sector in other countries,
where their money may go a lot further,
to live a two-hour commute from work in
downtown London. I think a lot of it, at
least from what I've heard, is as mundane
as that."
e Financial Times reported when
UK International Trade Secretary Liam
Fox brought 27 officials to Washington to
open talks with the US over the summer,
that while the delegation included some
experienced civil servants including career
diplomats, only a minority had worked in
