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[...] the heads of business groups in Canada, Switzerland, Norway and Albania said on Wednesday that maintaining full access to the EU single market was in the UK’s best interests.
“We recognise that full access to the single market would be greatly beneficial for Albania, as it already is for the UK,” said Luan Bregasi, president of BiznesAlbania, in an intervention co-ordinated by the CBI, the employers’ group.
“If the UK left the EU and signed a deal based on Albania’s relationship with the EU, exports could well face tariffs, putting British firms at a major disadvantage.”
Albania has a limited free-trade agreement with the EU, covering some goods and financial services, but no “passporting” for financial services companies, which would allow them to do business freely within the bloc.
Kristin Skogen Lund, director-general of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, said although Norwegian businesses had access to the single market for goods and services, the country paid “a significant bill with little say on the rules”.
She added: “While we can lead our own trade deal talks, we have less bargaining power than if we were inside the EU. It is especially damaging with the current trade negotiations between the EU and the US [on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership], where we are left out.”
A Norwegian-style agreement would see the UK join the European Economic Area (EEA), with Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein, and maintain full access to the single market. Britain would continue to make a substantial contribution to the EU budget and would have to allow free movement of labour. A recent government report said Norway implemented about three-quarters of EU rules.
Monika Rühl, director-general of Economiesuisse, said it had taken 16 years for Switzerland to agree its relationship with the EU, which was made up of more than 100 separate deals. “I hope that in the event of a Brexit you are not pinning your hopes on getting a deal quickly,” she said.
“Our deal is a complex web in which our firms must operate … We have to implement relevant EU rules but our ability to actually influence them is severely restricted.”
Ms Rühl said Swiss banks had to open subsidiaries in London in order to provide investment banking and foreign exchange trading to the EU.
Switzerland is part of the European Free Trade Area but not the EEA. The Swiss model would see the UK agreeing a set of bilateral accords with the EU, which would govern UK access to the single market in specific sectors, in which it would have to adopt EU regulation. Freedom of movement is part of the Swiss agreement.
The groups’ statements were co-ordinated by the CBI, which has long been a vocal advocate of remaining in the EU. “The Leave campaign has said we should be like Switzerland, Norway, Canada or even perhaps Albania — but all these countries say they would rather be like the UK,” said Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI. “They say that their models have big drawbacks and that we already have the best deal.”
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