“Reducing trade barriers is of mutual benefit to the UK and the EU,” said the UK’s minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, yesterday (4 February).
He was speaking at the EU-UK Forum in Brussels, where he shared details of the government’s hoped-for ‘reset’ in relations with the bloc.
Thomas-Symonds reiterated the UK’s commitment to achieving a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU, to reduce checks on affected goods, and said “we have to find ways to resolve issues like the mutual recognition of professional qualifications”.
“The time for ideologically-driven division is over – the time for ruthless pragmatism is now,” he said.
Shared priorities
The minister argued that “low growth is not the destiny for our economies” – particularly pertinent following weak economic data for the Eurozone in recent weeks. He also said that there were crucial similarities in prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘Plan for Change’ and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘Competitive Compass’ proposal for economic reform.
In a recent speech, von der Leyen said the EU needs to “fix our weaknesses to regain competitiveness”, and Thomas-Symonds noted that her announcements included a note on the importance of “trade openness” for improving both Europe’s “prosperity” and its “resilience”.
The shared priorities of the UK and EU leaderships include research and innovation, “cutting red tape”, improving rates of productivity and “a new skills agenda”, Thomas-Symonds argued.
These elements are all areas in which the UK and EU can align, he suggested, noting that the EU remains the UK’s largest trading partner, with trade between the two reaching over £800bn in 2023. He highlighted innovation:
“Many of our best education and science facilities have lifelong links, and our collaboration on research and development has been the springboard for hugely successful innovations that have driven growth and jobs.
“This government’s position is simple: the UK and the EU are linked through trade and international organisations like NATO, and even though we voted to leave the EU, our role as key allies and trade partner remains.”
‘Real opportunities’
Thomas-Symonds said that, going forward, there are “real opportunities to improve the status quo” in the relationship between the UK and EU.
Quoting from a Businesseurope report published last year, he said there “remain many unnecessary barriers to trade and investment”, adding that he agreed with the report that there is a “clear opportunity to upgrade the relationship”.
While he said the UK should be a “ruthlessly pragmatic negotiator”, he argued that that ruthlessness also “means making the case for closer working with our allies in the EU, to make people across the UK and the EU safer, more secure and more prosperous”.
He argued it is time for the UK to move away from what he described as “a zero-sum, win-lose dynamic we have seen in recent years”. As well as commitments to achieving deals on SPS goods and qualifications recognition, he also said “we can go much further” on cooperation around energy and the green transition.
The Chartered Institute perspective
Fergus McReynolds, the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade’s director of EU and international, said that “it is important that expectations are managed in what can be achieved” in the short term.
“The UK-EU summit, expected in May, will act as the starting point for what both parties will prioritise, rather than a conclusion of substantive agreements.
“Many of the priorities set out by both sides will take some time to achieve and, in the meantime, the Chartered Institute calls on both sides to explore the potential of digital trade corridors to ease friction at the border.”
Starmer speech
Thomas-Symonds spoke following Starmer’s statement earlier in the day that he wanted to see an “ambitious security partnership” between the UK and EU.
As reported by the Guardian, Starmer argued that bringing the two closer together on security would “bolster Nato” more broadly. He also has called on EU leaders to include the UK in what French president Emmanuel Macron has called a “buy European” policy on arms.
“Fragmentation would weaken us all,” he suggested, suggesting that “instead, let’s maximise the industrial weight and clout that we have together.”
Thomas-Symonds echoed these remarks in his speech, saying there was a “vital interconnection between security and prosperity”.
