UK plans Brexit celebrations but warns businesses may suffer

January 18, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The British government has announced plans for special events on the night of Jan. 31 when the country officially leaves the European Union but the country's treasury chief has admitted that some U.K. business sectors will suffer as a result.

Sajid Javid told the Financial Times in an interview Saturday that Britain's regulations will not be aligned with the EU in the future and that those changes may hurt some businesses. Currently the EU is Britain's largest trading partner.

“There will not be alignment, we will not be a rule-taker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union — and we will do this by the end of the year," he said, referring to a deadline at the end of 2020 for conclusion of what are expected to be contentious trade talks with the then-27 member EU.

Britain will officially leave the EU bloc on the night of Jan. 31, even though it will keep following EU rules for an 11-month transition period. It will be the first nation ever to leave the bloc. The British government plans to mark the occasion with a series of upbeat events.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to make a speech to the nation that night after holding a rare cabinet session in the north of England to emphasize his government's plan to spread opportunity to that economically beleaguered region.

The government also plans to mark Brexit by projecting a clock onto the prime minister's official residence at 10 Downing Street in London that will count down until 11 p.m., when the break takes place.

The entire government neighborhood of Whitehall is to be illuminated for the occasion as part of a light show, with Union flags flown on all the poles in Parliament Square. The government will also create a commemorative coin that will enter circulation that day.

But Johnson's Conservative government is no longer actively pushing a plan to have the familiar chimes of the Big Ben clock tower at Parliament sound at 11 p.m. despite a private fundraising push in support of activating the chimes, which are under repair.

Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to become the first nation to leave the 28-nation EU, but the process has moved more slowly than expected. A stalemate last year kept a withdrawal bill from passing, leading to a rare December election that gave Johnson's pro-Brexit Conservative Party a strong majority in Parliament.

The Brexit divorce bill quickly passed when the new Parliament convened. A transition period will last until the end of 2020 as negotiators try to forge a trade arrangement between Britain and the remaining EU nations.

Johnson, who is also seeking a trade deal with the United States, has ruled out seeking an extension of the deadline for the EU talks.

EU chief warns UK must compromise to get Brexit trade deal

January 08, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Three weeks before Britain is due to leave the European Union, the president of the European Commission warned Wednesday that the U.K. won’t get the “highest quality access” to the European Union's market after Brexit unless it makes major concessions.

In a friendly but frank message to the U.K., Ursula von der Leyen said negotiating a new U.K.-EU trade deal will be tough. She also said the end-of-2020 deadline that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed on negotiations makes it “basically impossible” to strike a comprehensive new agreement in time.

Von der Leyen, who took over as head of the EU's executive branch on Dec. 1, met Johnson at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday for the first time since the British leader’s election victory last month.

Johnson’s Conservatives won a substantial parliamentary majority in Britain's Dec. 12 election, giving him the power to end more than three years of wrangling over Brexit and take the U.K. out of the EU on Jan. 31. It will be the first nation to ever leave the bloc, which currently has 28 members.

Britain’s departure will be followed by a transition period in which the U.K.-EU relationship will remain largely unchanged while the two sides negotiate a new trade arrangement. Johnson says the U.K. is seeking a wide-ranging free trade deal, but doesn't want to agree to keep all EU rules and standards.

Johnson's office said after the meeting that the U.K. wanted “a broad free trade agreement covering goods and services, and cooperation in other areas.” But it said “any future partnership must not involve any kind of alignment” in which Britain would automatically follow EU rules.

That could cause problems. Speaking at the London School of Economics before her meeting with Johnson, von der Leyen warned that “without a level playing field on environment, labor, taxation and state aid, you cannot have the highest quality access to the world’s largest single market.”

"With every choice comes a consequence. With every decision comes a trade-off," she warned. The EU worries that Britain plans to cut environmental and employment standards in order to position itself as a low-regulation, low-tax competitor to the bloc.

Johnson sought to allay those fears, telling von der Leyen the U.K. would continue to maintain high standards “in areas like workers’ rights, animal welfare, agriculture and the environment,” Downing St. said.

International trade agreements typically take years to complete, but Johnson has ruled out extending the post-Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020, although the EU has offered to prolong it until 2022. Downing Street said Wednesday that “both British and EU citizens rightly expect negotiations on an ambitious free trade agreement to conclude on time.”

Von der Leyen said the time frame was “very, very tight” and made it “basically impossible” to negotiate anything but a skeleton deal. “The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be,” she said. “And without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. We will have to prioritize.”

The German EU chief — who studied in Britain in the 1970s and has proclaimed herself a friend and fan of Britain — did have some encouraging words for Johnson. She said the bloc was ready to strike a tariff-free and quota-free trade deal with Britain, and “a partnership that goes well beyond trade and is unprecedented in scope.”

She said the new relationship could encompass “everything from climate action to data protection, fisheries to energy, transport to space, financial services to security. And we are ready to work day and night to get as much of this done within the time frame we have.”

At the start of the meeting, Johnson noted that he and von der Leyen had attended the same Belgian school — the European School in Brussels, where both lived for a time as children. Johnson, 55, is six years younger than the EU chief.

Johnson’s election victory broke Britain's political stalemate over Brexit. His 80-seat House of Commons majority means he has the votes to get his Brexit deal approved by lawmakers, something his predecessor Theresa May never achieved.

Johnson’s key Brexit bill was approved in principle last month and is expected to pass its final House of Commons hurdle on Thursday after three days of debate. It also must be approved by the European Parliament.

Von der Leyen said she did not anticipate a delay and expected the U.K. to leave the EU on Jan. 31. “This will be a tough and emotional day," she said.

Raf Casert reported from Brussels.

Uncharted Brexit waters: UK's Boris Johnson faces 2020 tests

January 03, 2020

LONDON (AP) — After a remarkable political turnaround, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the verge of taking Britain out of the European Union with the enthusiastic support of a strong majority in Parliament.

After suffering a string of parliamentary defeats over Brexit — plus the ignominy of being told by Britain's Supreme Court that his suspension of Parliament last year was unlawful —Johnson cruised to victory in the country's Dec. 12 election and finally got his landmark Brexit bill passed before Christmas.

Expectations for the coming year are high, fueled by Johnson’s upbeat approach. He promised in his New Year’s message that resolving the Brexit stalemate means Britain “can start a new chapter in the history of our country, in which we come together and move forward united, unleashing the enormous potential of the British people.”

He pledged to “work my socks off” to unite the country. The message was pre-recorded; Johnson spent the holiday on the Caribbean island of Mustique with girlfriend Carrie Symonds. Johnson’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Theresa May, was stung by repeated rebukes from a hostile Parliament. Johnson, however, is in a much stronger position with a healthy Conservative Party majority in the House of Commons after the election that he called two years early.

When Johnson's tenure at 10 Downing Street began in July with a series of defeats in Parliament, many observers said he likely would have the shortest reign of any recent prime minister. Instead, he has won a five-year term and left the main opposition Labor Party in near-total disarray.

With Parliament remade in his image, Johnson expects to split Britain off from the 27 other EU nations on Jan. 31, becoming the first nation ever to leave the bloc. Then the truly difficult part begins as Britain launches contentious trade talks that will define its new relationship with Europe, its key trading partner.

Momentous changes are coming, but the immediate impact of Britain’s departure will be blunted because of a yearlong transition period. There will still be unfettered trade between Britain and the EU and the free movement of people throughout 2020.

Johnson may have a friendly Parliament at home, but he does not have a warm relationship with EU leaders, who hold much of the leverage in trade talks. He faces outright hostility from Scotland’s leader, whose region wanted to stay in the EU, and questions about whether Brexit may nudge U.K. member Northern Ireland closer to the Republic of Ireland and threaten its status as part of the U.K.

There is intense time pressure on the EU trade talks, which must conclude by the end of 2020 unless both sides agree on an extension by the end of June. That is an option Johnson has ruled out, raising once again the prospect that Britain might sever all EU ties without a new deal in place. Economists say such a “no-deal” Brexit would sabotage Britain's economy.

Most trade talks take much longer than one year to complete. These particular negotiations are unusually fraught because of uncertainty surrounding how trade between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be governed once the U.K. is no longer part of the EU.

There have been persistent warnings that imposing new trade barriers and tariffs could jeopardize the gains brought about by Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace deal and rekindle the violence there that has been largely dormant for two decades.

Brexit may nudge Northern Ireland toward uniting with Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland closely bound to Ireland in trade terms and imposing new paperwork that would slow trade between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.

Johnson also faces a Brexit-fueled confrontation with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that poses another threat to the U.K.'s unity. Sturgeon and her Scottish National Party are lobbying hard for a second independence referendum on whether Scotland should remain in the U.K. or strike its own path as an independent country.

Sturgeon argues that since Scottish voters rejected Brexit in the 2016 referendum Scotland is being “dragged out of the EU against its will” and should be given the chance to opt for independence, even though the prospect was voted down in 2014.

Johnson says his government will not authorize another vote on Scottish independence, but Sturgeon plans to press the issue in the coming year, capitalizing on her party’s strong performance in the December election. The independence-minded SNP won 48 seats in the House of Commons, a gain of 13 legislators.

Johnson’s larger-than-expected margin of victory and his Conservatives’ strong performance in traditional working-class Labor Party strongholds in northern and central England give him a chance to consolidate power. The Conservatives now have 365 seats in the 650-seat Parliament to Labor's 202.

It is not clear yet whether Johnson will navigate a shift to the center, patching together a deal that keeps the EU trading relationship as open as possible, or whether he will continue to court the Conservatives' hard-Brexit wing, which is ready for an abrupt rupture with Europe.

Either way, his task is formidable: take Britain out of the EU without sparking a major economic contraction, keep the U.K. intact despite the yearning for secession in some quarters, and making good on promises to hard-hit communities in north and central England that wealth and opportunity will — finally — move beyond greater London.

If he can do all that, and keep voters in newly Conservative parts of the country content, his turnaround would be complete.

UK lawmakers OK Johnson's Brexit bill, pave way to leave EU

December 20, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers approved in principle Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill, clearing the way for the U.K. to leave the European Union next month. The House of Commons voted 358-234 on Friday for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill. It will receive more scrutiny and possible amendment next month, and also has to be approved by Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords.

But Johnson’s commanding majority in Parliament means it is almost certain to become law in January. Britain will then leave the EU on Jan. 31. Johnson said Friday that passing the bill would end the “acrimony and anguish” that has consumed the country since it voted in 2016 to leave the EU. Opponents argue that leaving the EU will only trigger more uncertainty over Britain’s future trade relations with the bloc.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged lawmakers on Friday to back his Brexit bill to end the “acrimony and anguish” that has consumed the country since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union.

Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement Bill is all but certain to be approved in principle later Friday by the country’s new Conservative-dominated House of Commons. It will be a moment of triumph for Johnson, who won a commanding parliamentary majority in last week’s general election on a promise to end more than three years of political gridlock and lead Britain out of the European Union on Jan. 31.

The U.K.'s departure will open a new phase of Brexit, as Britain and the EU race to strike new relationships for trade, security and host of other areas by the end of 2020. Johnson, however, painted Friday's vote as a moment of closure. Opening debate on the bill he said, optimistically, that after Jan, 31, “Brexit will be done, it will be over.”

“The sorry story of the last 3 1/2 years will be at an end and we will be able to move forward together,” he said. “This is a time when we move on and discard the old labels of ‘leave’ and ‘remain,’” Johnson added. “Now is the time to act together as one reinvigorated nation.”

Britain voted narrowly to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum. But previous attempts by Johnson and his predecessor, Theresa May, to pass a Brexit deal through the U.K. Parliament foundered as lawmakers objected to sections of the agreement and demanded a bigger say in the process. Johnson’s election victory finally gives him the power to get his way.

“The election has produced a result: We will leave the EU at the end of January,” acknowledged pro-EU Liberal Democrat legislator Wera Hobhouse. “The battle to stop Brexit is over.” The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle, but Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays, The Brexit bill has been amended to bar ministers from agreeing to extend the transition period with the EU.

That has set off alarm bells among business es, who fear that means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021. Economists say that would disrupt trade with the EU — Britain's biggest trading partner — and plunge the U.K. into recession.

Johnson said Friday he was confident of striking a “deep, special and democratically accountable partnership with those nations we are proud to call our closest friends” by the Brexit deadline. He said extending the transition period would just prolong Brexit “acrimony and anguish ... a torture that came to resemble Lucy snatching away Charlie Brown’s football.”

For all Johnson's talk of “getting Brexit done” on Jan. 31, details of Britain's negotiating stance — and even who will lead the trade talks — remain unknown. Armed with his 80-seat majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, Johnson has stripped out parts of the Brexit bill that gave lawmakers a role in negotiating a future trade deal with the EU and required ministers to provide regular updates to Parliament. The clauses were added earlier in the year in an attempt to win opposition lawmakers’ support for the Brexit bill — backing that Johnson no longer needs.

A promise that workers’ rights will not be eroded after Brexit has also been removed from the bill, although the Conservative government says it will enshrine employment rights in separate legislation.

Opposition Labor Party lawmaker Hilary Benn said Johnson's bill was “a gamble with our nation’s economy.” “If he fails, the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit becomes in just 12 months’ time,” he said. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his 203 lawmakers would oppose the Brexit bill because of “the reckless direction in which the government and the prime minister are determined to take our country.”

“There is a better and fairer way for this country to leave the European Union," he said. Even without opposition votes, the bill is expected to complete its passage through Parliament in January, in time for Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc on Jan. 31.

The divorce deal also needs to be ratified by the European Parliament. European Parliament vice president Pedro Silva Pereira said officials expect that to happen by Jan. 29. Very little will change immediately after Brexit. Britain will remain an EU member in all but name during the 11-month transition period that ends in December 2020.

Taiwan President Tsai calls for stability in China relations

May 20, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called for stability in relations with China in her inaugural address Wednesday but said she would not accept Beijing’s political terms that would “downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo.”

Reelected by a landslide late last year, Tsai said relations with Beijing had reached a “historical turning point” and that “peace, parity, democracy, and dialogue” should form the basis for contacts between the sides as a means to prevent intensifying antagonisms and differences.

Tsai said Taiwan would also work to increase its participation in international society, even as Beijing seeks to shut it out and poach allies away from the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

“We will not accept the Beijing authorities’ use of ‘one country, two systems' to downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo," Tsai told an audience at the baroque Taipei Guest House in the center of the capital.

Tsai represents the ruling Democratic Progressive Party which advocates Taiwan’s formal independence, something Beijing says it will use force to prevent. Her election to a second, four-year term came after the repression of pro-democracy protests in the nearby Chinese semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong solidified public opinion in Taiwan against moves toward accepting rule by Beijing.

The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing has cut off ties with Tsai’s government over her refusal to accept its demand that she recognize the island as a part of China to be unified with eventually under the “one country, two systems" policy enacted in Hong Kong.

Beijing's diplomats have prevented Taiwan from joining international gatherings such as the World Health Organization and reduced its number of diplomatic allies to a handful, while its military has boosted patrols and exercises aimed at intimidating the island's population.

In her speech, Tsai emphasized the need to boost national security, including against non-traditional threats such as cyber and “cognitive" warfare, defined partly by the use of disinformation on social media.

Tsai, 63, is a former law professor and unique in being the only modern woman leader in Asia to rise to the top without being part of a political dynasty. Attending Wednesday's speech were diplomats from Taiwan’s remaining 15 formal diplomatic allies and representatives of the U.S. and other major nations that maintain strong but informal ties with Taiwan. The U.S. is the island’s main source of military support against China’s military threats and a key advocate for its participation in international gatherings.

Prior to her address, congratulatory remarks from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were read out praising Tsai’s “courage and vision in leading Taiwan’s vibrant democracy is an inspiration to the region and the world.”

“The United States has long considered Taiwan a force for good in the world and a reliable partner,” Pompeo said in the statement. “We have a shared vision for the region — one that includes rule of law, transparency, prosperity, and security for all.”

The U.S. support comes amid rising frictions between Washington and Beijing over trade, technology and allegations of Beijing’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic that began last year. At the same time, Washington has increased military sales to the island of 23.6 million and Congress has passed legislation promoting closer political and economic ties.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing expressed its “strong indignation and condemnation," over Pompeo's remarks, adding that the U.S. must “stop official exchange with Taiwan or improving real relations with Taiwan."

“China will take necessary measures against the above-mentioned wrong actions of the U.S. side, and the resulting consequences shall be borne by the U.S. side," Zhao said. Despite Beijing’s attempts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and vastly reduce numbers of Chinese tourists visiting the island, Tsai has overseen steady growth in Taiwan’s high-tech economy and enacted social reforms, including making the island the only democracy in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage.

Reforms, including reductions in civil service pensions had sparked a backlash and Tsai had appeared vulnerable to a challenge from the pro-China Nationalist Party candidate. However, her support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in the face of an often-violent police response helped lift her poll figures.

Many see China’s autocratic Communist Party as eroding Hong Kong’s civil liberties and Taiwanese voters have strongly rejected any moves toward political accommodation with Beijing. Poll results released by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center last week found that 66% of island residents view themselves as Taiwanese, 28% as both Taiwanese and Chinese and 4% as just Chinese. The telephone poll of 1,562 people, conducted last fall, has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

Among respondents under 30, fully 83% said they don’t consider themselves Chinese. Another 2.3% of Taiwan’s people are members of indigenous groups who are not ethnically Chinese. A former Japanese colony, Taiwan was handed to China in 1945 but split again from the mainland when Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland in 1949. The rival Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan, 160 kilometers (100 miles) across the Taiwan Strait from China’s east coast.

China says boy picked by Dalai Lama now a college graduate

May 20, 2020

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday that a boy who disappeared 25 years ago after being picked by the Dalai Lama as Tibetan Buddhism’s second-highest figure is now a college graduate with a stable job.

Very little information has been given about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima or his family since he went missing at age 6 shortly after being named the 11th Panchen Lama. China, which claims that Tibet is part of its territory, named another boy to the position, Gyaltsen Norbu, who is rarely seen and is believed to spend most of his time in Beijing. He is generally viewed as a political figure under Beijing's control and shares none of the Dalai Lama's global fame.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Gedhun Choekyi Nyima “received free compulsory education when he was a child, passed the college entrance examination and now has a job." Zhao said neither the now-31-year-old man or his family wishes to be disturbed in their “current normal lives.” No other details were given.

The tussle between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959, concerns who will determine the future of Tibetan Buddhism, which still commands heavy sway over the people of the Himalayan region that China says has been its territory for centuries but which many Tibetans believe was largely independent.

Tibet’s self-declared government-in-exile in India marked the 25th anniversary of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima's disappearance by calling on Beijing on Sunday to account for his whereabouts. “China’s abduction of the Panchen Lama and forcible denial of his religious identity and right to practice in his monastery is not only a violation of religious freedom but also a gross violation of human rights,” the Tibetan parliament in northern India, known as the Kashag, said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a statement on Monday calling on China to “immediately make public the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts and to uphold its own constitution and international commitments to promote religious freedom for all persons."

The Dalai Lama named the original Panchen Lama with the help of Tibetan lamas trained in reading portents and signs. China claims the reincarnate can only be chosen by pulling lots from a golden urn, a method it used to pick its own candidate under the control of the officially atheistic ruling Communist Party.

Traditionally, the Panchen Lama has served as teacher and aide to the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s highest leader who is now 84 and is accused by Beijing of seeking independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama denies that and says he advocates greater autonomy for the region.

Hong Kong lawmakers clash as pro-Beijing camp elects chair

May 18, 2020

HONG KONG (AP) — Clashes broke out in Hong Kong's legislature Monday for a second time this month as a pro-Beijing lawmaker was elected as chair of a key committee that scrutinizes bills, ending a prolonged struggle for control with the pro-democracy camp.

The legislature’s House Committee, which vets bills and decides when to present them for a final vote, had been without a chairperson for more than six months. The central government in Beijing criticized deputy chairperson and pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok for deliberately delaying matters and causing a backlog of bills that affect public interest.

Kwok was replaced Friday by Chan Kin-por, who was appointed by the legislature’s president to preside over Monday’s election. After scuffles and shouting matches, leading to Chan ejecting most of the pro-democracy lawmakers, the election took place with pro-Beijing lawmaker Starry Lee winning easily.

Her election will likely speed up the passing of a controversial bill that would criminalize abuse of the Chinese national anthem. Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said last week that passing the bill was a priority for the government, and the bill will be presented to the committee on May 27.

At Monday’s meeting, pro-democracy lawmakers held up placards that read “Abuse of Power” and “CCP tramples HK legislature,” referring to the China's ruling Communist Party. Within minutes, at least five lawmakers were ejected for disorderly behavior, with at least one lying injured on the ground as the meeting was briefly suspended.

“Hong Kong is marching towards the beginning of the end of ‘one country, two systems’,” said pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo after the meeting ended. The former British colony was returned to China in 1997 under a one country, two systems framework that gives Hong Kong its own legal system and greater rights than in the mainland.

Mo urged the Hong Kong people to vote out those who “don’t care about Hong Kong’s future” in the legislative elections in September. Pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan accused security guards of Hong Kong’s legislature of “losing their impartiality,” after the security guards surrounded the bench where the chairperson was seated and prevented pro-democracy lawmakers from getting close.

Lawmakers clashed over the same issue on May 8, when Lee occupied the chairperson’s seat more than an hour before the meeting was scheduled to start, saying that external legal counsel had advised that she had the power to preside over House Committee meetings.

Pro-democracy lawmakers accused her of abusing her power and staged a walkout, leaving Lee and the pro-Beijing camp to clear several bills.