Lords accuses government of being naive ahead of Brexit trade talks
A cross-party group of House of Lords members accused the British government of being naive in its understanding of free trade and of expecting a "free lunch" during trade negotiations following the Brexit referendum.
As the Supreme Court mulls whether the UK should trigger the process of leaving the European Union with or without a parliamentary debate before Theresa May's stated deadline of the end of March, the upper chamber of the legislature provided a scathing indictment of the government's approach.
"The notion that a country can have complete regulatory sovereignty while engaging in comprehensive free trade with partners is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of free trade," the group of peers said.
The report is one of six being released in an attempt to discuss the potential mechanisms through which Britain's eventual departure would function.
"While the UK could unilaterally decide to lower its tariffs on agricultural goods, this could complicate the process of agreement to its schedules and reduce its leverage in future FTA negotiations, as the UK would be less able to offer preferential terms to other countries," the report added.
The peers assembled in the EU internal market and EU external affairs committees concluded that it was highly unlikely that Britain will gain any kind of access to the single market without a willingness to accept a certain amount of EU law.
"The level of market access the UK is able to negotiate with the EU would depend in part on the extent to which it was willing to accept and adopt EU law or demonstrate equivalence with EU rules."
Another Lords report called for Northern Ireland to maintain its open land border with the Irish Republic and have devolved control over EU immigration.
The EU select committee pushed for Northern Ireland to have special status after Brexit because "any negative impact of Brexit on the UK economy is likely to be replicated, or even magnified, for the Irish economy".