A closer relationship would spur both the UK and EU economy

After COVID both the UK and EU economies are looking vulnerable and have this month only just avoided economic recession. With war in Europe, the Middle East, and possible in Asia, with who knows what will happen in the US elections, we need strong European economies in and outside the EU to support countries’ political influence and (necessarily, military) preparedness for the unexpected.

The British public were misled by disingenuous arguments in 2016 to believe that they could return to a pre-1945 Britain standing alone and defiant against a troubled world and able to influence their future with no reference to the rest of the globe. This was nostalgic nonsense.

The English poet John Donne said that no man is an island. Nor is any island.

Decisions taken nationally, whether on regulation, interest rates or taxation have an effect which no national politician can fully control. If the market thinks that a government has got it wrong, they will react however much a government thinks it has sole, sovereign rights over the steps it takes.

In an interconnected, globalised economy, trade determines a country's long-term prosperity. That is why around the world negotiators look to reach trade agreements which make the sale of goods and services easier.

The form of Brexit adopted in 2019 went in exactly the opposite direction and was far from the seamless, oven-ready accord with the UK’s largest market which was promised in 2016.

This can be illustrated by myriad examples, but here are some which reflect just how un-seamless the relationship looks on the ground:

• -  UK food exporters’ need to certify compliance with EU SPS rules has meant many UK food products, not least seafood and fresh meat, are no longer able to be easily exported - or in some cases, at all.

• -  A UK retailer with whom I spoke recently seeking to move goods from the UK to Ireland had to give the driver literally one million pieces of paper to carry in order to clear customs. The new, much delayed UK health checks for EU products introduced this month will make things worse for EU exporters, and is likely to cost importers – and UK consumers – some £330 million annually.

• -  UK online retailers used to export £3 billion worth of goods to EU consumers. This trade useful for UK retailers and for EU consumers, has almost entirely disappeared because of the cost of customs clearance.

  This may all sound like special pleading for changes in the TCA, an agreement which the UK itself chose to pursue. And EU decision-makers would be right to say that the UK government has brought these woes on itself. But it can be argued that, in a cost of living crisis and economic downturn, both the EU and UK would benefit from easing some of the current barriers in both markets.

  It would also be high time for the UK to stop pretending that regulatory divergence from the EU makes any sense. UK exporters will anyway need to apply EU rules to export to the EU, and exporters to the UK are unlikely to make UK-specific products when the much larger EU market adopts different rules.

  But let's not rehearse Brexit arguments which have been picked over ad nauseam. Important to both the UK is that reducing trading links between the UK and EU risk making both economies weaker. The UK has 67 million – relatively – wealthy citizens, and an economy worth £3 trillion. Easing trade and political relations would lift some of the barriers to trade in both directions and would benefit both sides. This can help revive both economies at a time that such a stimulus is sorely needed.

  The Independent UK-EU Commission will in the coming months be preparing a report to provide the next UK government with areas of adjustment where such closer cooperation could be realistically achieved. It is working with business, industry and sector leaders to gather ideas from informed stakeholders, both in the UK and the EU to include in this report.

  We believe that a pragmatic, non-ideological approach to a shared problem can only help the EU and the UK to more quickly revive our economies and stand closer in facing the challenges of a potentially unstable world.

  Neil McMillan is an EU government relations professional, an ex-diplomat and public servant based in Brussels. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Independent Commission on UK EU Relations.