Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has hinted that the UK could join the EU’s custom-style Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention just hours after Brussels bureaucrat Maros Sefcovic touted the potential arrangement in Davos.
Reynolds, who met with Sefcovic yesterday, claimed that joining the group could be acceptable as it is “not a Customs Union”.
The Business Secretary told the BBC: “We can improve the terms of trade with the EU in a way which doesn’t revisit customs unions or single markets or the arguments of Brexit, and we can do that whilst pursuing closer trade links around the world.”
Reynolds also hinted at further Brexit betrayals, including on food and farm products.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who ultimately hopes for even closer ties with the EU, said ruling out the PEM proposal would be an “act of economic negligence”.
However, Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel accused Labour of “bending the knee” to the EU.
She said: “These latest reports that the Government might shackle us to the European Union are deeply concerning, and once again make clear that Keir Starmer and his chums are all too happy to put their ideology ahead of our national interest, no matter the cost.”
The Prime Minister is under pressure to return Britain to the EU’s orbit after Brussels’s new trade chief Maros Sefcovic stresseed such an agreement would represent membership of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM).
PEM operates under common rules which enable parts, ingredients and materials for manufacturing supply chains to be sourced from across dozens of countries in Europe and North Africa tariff-free.
The suggestion, rejected by the previous Tory Governments, was touted during Sefcovic’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Prime Minister is unequioval about his determination to “reset” cross-Channel relations but continues to insist that this will not infringe on the UK’s decision to leave the Single Market or Customs Union.
Despite No10 remaining quite coy about the UK’s potential membership of PEM yesterday, Starmer’s Government is reportedly holding consultations with business leaders over the benefits of PEM but no final decision has yet been made.
Brexiteers have long warned that being part of a Customs Union would block the UK from signing independent Free Trade Agreements, including with the United States.
During Sefcovic’s Davos appearance, the EU’s trade chief said the idea has not been “precisely formulated” by London yet and the “ball is in the UK’s court”.
Sefcovic also hinted at a full-scale veterinary agreement to reduce frictions on farming and food trade, an updating fisheries deal and mobility plan for under 30s.
Sefcovic stressed he hoped the scheme would “build bridges for the future for the European Union and the UK”.
“That was the idea,” he said. “[But] we’ve been a little bit surprised what kind of spin it got in the UK.
“It is not freedom of movement,” Sefcovic added. “We have been very clear what we’ve been proposing.”
