08-19-2016, 04:33 AM
Big investment banks with their European headquarters in London will start the process of moving jobs from the U.K. within weeks of the government triggering Brexit, a faster time line than their public messages of patience would imply, according to people briefed on the plans being drawn up by four of the biggest firms. Dismayed by the lack of a clear plan to protect the U.K.’s status as a global financial hub, executives are planning for the worst -- that they will lose the right to sell services freely around the European Union from the City, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. Facing a long process with potential waits for regulatory approvals before workers can pack their bags, banks want to start quickly in order to have new or expanded offices set up in Europe before the end of the two-year Brexit negotiation period.
Banks Won’t Wait to See What Brexit Deal the U.K. Can Get - Bloomberg
Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, believes that the UK needs to conduct five interconnecting sets of trade negotiations (actually he identifies more but I’m going to leave out those on foreign, defence and security policies for the sake of simplicity).
A deal on Brexit was never going to be easy. There's plenty that could go wrong
These are – deep breath – the UK’s legal separation with the European Union; a free trade agreement with the EU (which will, hopefully but not necessarily, be concurrent to the separation talks); the negotiation of an interim deal to cover the period between the UK separating from the EU (two years after Article 50 has been triggered unless all 27 remaining members of the EU unanimously agree to extend the timeframe) and when the FTA talks are concluded (those between the EU and Canada took seven years and only included limited access to the single market for services); accession to full membership of the World Trade Organisation (which requires the unanimous approval of all 163 members – including countries like Russia and Argentina with whom the UK has somewhat testy relations); and 53 new FTAs to replace those that the EU has with different countries around the world. Phew.
A deal on Brexit was never going to be easy. There's plenty that could go wrong