No EU trade deal before Brexit deadline, says Government official Britain will not have signed a trade deal with the European Union before the Article 50 deadline is reached in […]

Britain will not have signed a trade deal with the European Union before the Article 50 deadline is reached in March 2019, one of the Government’s leading Brexit officials has admitted.

Theo Rycroft, Head of the EU Exit Strategy Department in the Foreign Office, also conceded that the UK would lose one of its key bargaining chips by having to agree the financial settlement before it hammers out a future trade arrangement.

Negotiations between Britain and the EU will resume next week after Theresa May made partial headway by convincing the remaining 27 states to agree to consider drawing up plans to discuss future trade arrangements.

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No trade deal

But speaking at a conference organised by the UK in a Changing Europe, Mr Rycroft cast doubts on the prospect of Britain finalising a trade deal before the Brexit deadline is reached, stating it was more likely to occur during an implementation phase.

Asked whether the UK would lose serious bargaining power by having to agree the divorce bill before a trade deal is agreed, Mr Rycroft said: “There is a certain amount of truth in that.

And he added: “The money is a withdrawal issue and we have to agree the withdrawal treaty before we leave. As I have said before, we’re not going to sign the trade deal before we leave, so the two things are decoupled to that extent.”

Mr Rycroft’s comments raise significant question marks over the Government’s optimism that it will be able to finalise trade arrangement before Britain formally leaves the EU.

The Whitehall official’s admission comes just a day after Brexit Secretary David Davis conceded that the withdrawal agreement is likely to favour the EU in money terms.

Cat is out of the bag

Wes Streeting, Labour MP and key advocate for keeping Britain in the Single Market, said Mr Rycroft’s comments “let the cat out of the bag over the state of our talks with the EU”.

“Few people believe that we will agree a trade deal by March 2019, which makes an agreement over transition even more urgent if we’re to avoid a cliff edge for British businesses and the jobs and livelihoods of people who depend on their success,” Mr Streeting told i.

Adnan Menon, Director of UK in a Changing Europe, a research unit associated with King’s College, London, said there was little chance of Britain agreeing a trade deal by the March 2019 deadline.

“At a certain point, the Government will have to acknowledge this. The most likely time when the Government agrees a trade arrangement is when it is free of Parliament after MPs have their vote on the final Article 50 deal,” Mr Menon said.

Open as possible

Even if Britain did manage to hammer out a trade deal with the EU before the Brexit deadline, Mr Menon added, getting it ratified by all member states could take “at least 18 months”.

The news comes as ministers were forced to publish secret papers into the economic impact of Brexit on key industries.

Mr Davis told MPs the Government intends to be “as open as we can be” when making Brexit economic impact studies available to MPs.