0:00:14 > 0:00:22Order, order. Good morning. You are most welcome. Thank you for giving
0:00:22 > 0:00:29up your time to give evidence to us as a select committee today, drawing
0:00:29 > 0:00:35on a wide range of past experience and expertise. You were a trade
0:00:35 > 0:00:41commissioner and former director of the World Trade Organisation. You
0:00:41 > 0:00:45said at an Institute for Government seminar that you thought that
0:00:45 > 0:00:52negotiating a new trade and economic relationship between the United
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Kingdom and the European Union would take, I think I am right in saying,
0:00:56 > 0:01:01between five and six years. Could you set out for us why you think it
0:01:01 > 0:01:04would take that long and has anything happened since you said
0:01:04 > 0:01:15that that has led you to revise that timetable?Thanks for having the
0:01:15 > 0:01:23honour for witnessing this committee. From the very beginning
0:01:23 > 0:01:31just after the vote in 2016, I have been thinking and saying I am now
0:01:31 > 0:01:36free enough to be saying what I think. It is a great relief. After
0:01:36 > 0:01:47many years of restraints.
0:01:57 > 0:02:04Part of the omelette that was created for many years, moving back
0:02:04 > 0:02:14from that these, inevitably in my view, very complex issues. Leaving
0:02:14 > 0:02:22aside the politics of that and getting this done is as difficult as
0:02:22 > 0:02:27getting out of an omelette. Just after Brexit.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09I will need some time for preparation. To answer your
0:03:09 > 0:03:20question, Mr Chairman, it will take a long time because it is complex.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25It took many years for the European Union to move from a comment market
0:03:25 > 0:03:35to the single market. When removed from the comment market, and there
0:03:35 > 0:03:40is a difference between the markets, I was chief of staff when he took
0:03:40 > 0:03:53this initiative in 1985. This process of integration, mostly
0:03:53 > 0:03:56through regulatory work has been going on for many years. Moving back
0:03:56 > 0:04:02from that will be complex and in my view, for what it is worth, if there
0:04:02 > 0:04:11were many benefits in moving to comment market and the single
0:04:11 > 0:04:19market...OK, in the light of what you have just said, at the moment
0:04:19 > 0:04:25the two parties are talking about a transitional period, which, from my
0:04:25 > 0:04:28perspective will be a period where negotiations have to take place
0:04:28 > 0:04:34because they will not be concluded by October, ending in December 2020,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37presumably, in the light of what you have just told us, you do not think
0:04:37 > 0:04:45it will be possible to do that by December 2020?That is what is on
0:04:45 > 0:04:53the table so far.OK.This is what I understand people in Brussels and
0:04:53 > 0:05:05the UK Government agreed to so far.
0:05:21 > 0:05:27Subtitles will resume at 11pm with The Week In Parliament.