Ms Katie Daughen:

The regulatory divergence piece was mentioned. We would read it in the same terms as the members and what is put down in the joint report. It implies regulatory alignment should be maintained as a fall-back for North-South and therefore east-west relations, and this would mean it would function as such between the UK and the EU. The difference between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Brexit office is that, politically, the UK Government believes it can get a deal that can secure all this, meaning we will not have to go back to the fall-back position. UK Secretary of State David Davis has even said they still believe there is a "CETA plus plus plus" on the table. Each time he speaks about it the concept seems to get an additional plus.