Linklaters Senior Counsel, Dr. Lorand Bartels gives evidence to the Commons ‘Exiting the European Union’ select committee

Listen to the audio recording of the evidence session.

Progress of the UK’s negotiations on EU withdrawal

To view the full video of the evidence session, visit the Parliament website.

The International Trade Committee held an evidence session on Wednesday 17 January, with regards to questions around exiting the European Union Committee.

Dr. Lorand Bartels, Senior Counsel in our International Trade Law team, gave evidence alongside Christophe Bondy, Public International Lawyer at Cooley (UK) LLP and former senior counsel to Canada on the CETA negotiations and William Swords, President, UK-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

The session covered questions such as:

  • How negotiations could be based on the existing Canadian agreement with the EU (CETA) with additions (Canada +++) and the benefits of such an approach
  • Length of time negotiations could take
  • Whether relying on WTO rules could be preferable to separate negotiations
  • The issue of competence
  • What benefit could be gained from being out of the single market
  • The open border issue with Northern Ireland