11 October 2019

Financial Times: Trade bodies appeal for regulatory alignment post-Brexit

The UK’s largest manufacturing industries have warned of “serious risk” to competitiveness and “huge new costs and disruption to UK firms” if Boris Johnson ends regulatory alignment as part of any post-Brexit trade deal.

Five trade bodies, representing 1.1m employees and contributing £98bn to the UK economy, have written to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and Brexit secretary Steve Barclay asking the government not to tear up essential regulations that allow their businesses to work with EU customers and suppliers.

These include pan-European regulations that allow supply chains to operate efficiently and avoid the duplication of costly process of registering pharmaceuticals and chemicals as well as ensuring common food safety and labelling.

Industry has become alarmed about the shape of any new UK-EU trade deal after it emerged last month that prime minister Boris Johnson has demanded a rewrite of the terms of the future relationship to allow Britain to substantially diverge from European rules after Brexit.

“Regulatory divergence poses a serious risk to manufacturing competitiveness and will result in huge new costs and disruption to UK firms,” the trade bodes warned in the letter, which was sent on Wednesday ahead of a breakthrough in talks between the UK and EU. “It would be disruptive to our complex international supply chains and has the potential to risk consumer and food safety and confidence, access to overseas markets for UK exporters, and vital future investment in innovation in this country.”

The signatories to the letter, included the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the Chemical Industries Association, the Food and Drink Federation, and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, as well as ADS, the aerospace and defence lobby group, which had issued a similar warning separately. [...]

Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)

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