Professional services accounted for approximately 7.8% of UK GDP in 2016 – the latest figures – yet the EU trade deal with Canada (The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA )), widely touted as the model for the UK post Brexit, does not provide a comprehensive framework for them. CETA has been given increasing attention following Michel Barnier’s publication of CETA as the ‘one available option’ given the UK government’s red lines on policy going forward.
Unveiling a new paper: Blind spot – how CETA overlooks legal services, Law Society of England and Wales president Joe Egan said: “We know that leaving the EU will result in some barriers to trade and movement being re-imposed on Britain if we leave the single market. It is the opinion of the Law Society that decades spent building the UK’s unrivalled professional services sector must not be thrown away in an EU deal which ignores Britain’s valuable legal services.’
