The Chancellor said including financial services in the deal was in everyone's 'mutual interest'
The European Union has rejected the Chancellor’s bid to include an unprecedented section on financial services in the post-Brexit trade deal, warning that “life will be different” for banks once Britain leaves.
Philip Hammond on Wednesday told an audience in the City of London that “sceptics” of including financial services in a free trade deal were wrong and that such an approach was not only “possible” but “in our mutual interest”.
But speaking in Dublin on Thursday Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, directly rebuffed Mr Hammond’s call, hinting that the UK’s impending departure from the single market, customs union, and jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice made such an approach difficult.
“Yesterday the UK Chancellor made a speech in the City of London arguing for a bespoke deal or an ambitious FTA covering financial services – so I will refer to this issue of such great interest to London,” he said.
“In the free trade agreement we can offer trade in goods, with the aim of covering all sectors, subject to zero tariffs and no quantitative restrictions.
“But services are not about tariffs. Services are about common rules, common supervision and common enforcement.
