In an interview with Nick Ferrari at the Conservative congress, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said: “There is an absolute will to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom.” Many openly opposed to Chequers, including Davis, Johnson and Rees-Mogg, supported a rival plan for a “basic” Canadian-style free trade agreement developed by the free market think tank Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA). This is not a final Brexit deal, as negotiations with the bloc are still ongoing and important parts of the deal have already been rejected in Brussels. The abrupt abandonment of elements of Mrs May`s Chequers plan at the informal meeting in Salzburg last week has sparked feverish attempts to revive the case for a comprehensive and specific free trade agreement between Britain and the EU under the title of a more CETA. These efforts have been significantly strengthened by the Institute for Economics document of 24 September 2018. However, none of the discussions has seriously focused on the fact that a free trade agreement will require the introduction of border formalities for trade between the UK and the EU and that these will violate both the obligation of a border in Ireland and an overload of ports linked to flows between the UK and the EU, which will increase trade costs and reduce trade with the EU. (more…) This is not a final Brexit deal. This is an agreement on the UK`s preferred path, as negotiations with the European Union on future relations reach a decisive phase. The IEA recommends a new Anglo-Irish backstop agreement to maintain open borders; the removal of tariffs and quotas for all products that the UK does not produce, including foodstuffs that cannot be grown here; and that free movement from the EU is replaced by a global system that “recognizes the economic and social benefits and costs of immigration”. A “common institutional framework” will be put in place for the interpretation of agreements between the UK and the EU.

Davis, the Brexit secretary at the Chequers meeting, resigned on 8 July over the agreement[19] as well as Davis` parliamentary secretary of state, Steve Baker. [20] Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson followed him the next day. [20] In his resignation speech on July 18, Johnson said the government had dropped “a fog of doubts about itself” about its negotiations. The speech attracted remarkable attention and BBC political journalist Laura Kuenssberg said it was “the first Boris-Johnson speech I remember when I watched that there were no jokes.” [21] In presenting the plan, May addressed the issue of the Irish border and stated that there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and that there would be no border in the United Kingdom. [9] A “simplified customs agreement” would eliminate the need for customs controls by treating the UK and the EU “as a combined customs territory.” The UK would apply EU customs and trade policy to products destined for unity, but which control its own tariffs and trade for the internal market. [8] This situation is different from that of a “Canada Plus” agreement advocated by the Conservatives` human rights research group, which was not an EU-linked tariff and could therefore threaten such rights if countries apply lower duties in the UK to facilitate duty-free access with EU countries , which would undermine EU tariffs; However, it is likely that such a scenario would require a hard border on the island of Ireland, since there are no technological solutions to Irish border issues yet. [10] At the meeting on 6-7 July, cabinet ministers reached an agreement on the type of relationship the UK wants to have with the European Union after Brexit, and this is the UK proposal submitted to EU negotiators.