Press

Sam Lowe, of the Centre for European Reform, a think tank, points out that doing deals is also harder when there is no deadline.

Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, fears the UK still has five key areas that will determine the future relationship between the country and the European Union. Mr Grant looked at European countries outside the EU, like Switzerland, who have been in a constant negotiation limbo with the bloc since the mid-seventies. The political expert forecast Brexit Britain may soon be entering a similar situation and face as much as 50 years of additional talks with Brussels.

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said joining the tripartite group would be “a good way of building bridges with the US and the EU on trade”.He said: “It’s good for the UK to try and come to a consensus position on these issues; there’s no point in the UK taking its own approach. If the aim is actually to try and change Chinese behaviour and get new commitments from China in these areas, then you need to present a united front.

Ian Bond, the director of foreign policy for the Centre for European Reform in London, said Britain’s “attempt to downgrade the status of the EU delegation to the UK looks petty and guaranteed to cause ill-will, when the UK needs friends in Brussels.’’It was “worth noting Trump tried the same trick, but had to back down,’’ he said, referring to a similar effort to downgrade the status of the EU ambassador to Washington two years ago.

Sophia Besch and Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for European Reform argue in a new paper that “many Europeans will want to forget Trump’s presidency ever happened.” But they add, “Europe cannot continue to look to the U.S. to answer key questions on what its interests are and how it should pursue them.”