Britain's road to Brexit long and complex

ALONG with a first set of three deals ("Goodwill crucial in the long road to Britain's exit from the EU", BT, Aug 2) on Britain's new relationship with the European Union (EU), the UK will need another three series of negotiations on wider trade and foreign policy issues.

The fourth accord that Prime Minister Theresa May needs to strike is attaining full World Trade Organization (WTO) membership. (Britain is currently a member via the EU.) Full members must deposit "schedules" of tariffs, quotas, subsidies and other concessions on market access with the WTO. The UK will have to negotiate its own schedules, initially with the other 27 members of the EU. The tariff negotiation could be simple, if the British followed what the EU does now. But dividing up quotas, on say New Zealand lamb imports, would be more complicated. And then the new British schedules would need the approval of all 163 WTO members, since the organisation's decisions require consensus.

If one member (for example, Argentina or Russia) wanted to create difficulties, it could block the British schedules. British officials hope that such difficulties do not arise, but reckon that it will be hard work to sort out WTO membership within the two years of the Article 50 negotiation.