The British finance minister Sajid Javid has warned the British business community that the regulations within the United Kingdom after the Brexit will deviate from those of the European Union. He did that in an interview in the Financial Times on Saturday. He emphasized that British companies will have to adjust after the British exit from the EU.
The UK and the EU will enter the next Brexit phase next month: negotiations on a trade agreement between the two parties. Brussels wants the British to continue to adhere to European rules after they leave the bloc, in order to make trade between both parties as smooth as possible. The observance of European rules is also a condition of the EU when negotiating a trade agreement in order to be able to trade tariff and quota free.
The British, however, have no appetite for that, the interview shows. “We will not retain the European rules and we will not be a ‘regulator’,” says Javid firmly. “We will also not be part of the internal market and the customs union,” said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as the function of Javid is officially called in the UK.
The minister’s statements show that a new government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not planning to maintain a close trade relationship with the European bloc. Herewith she deviates from earlier plans of the previous government led by Theresa May, who wanted to continue to work closely with the European bloc, in order to minimize the risk of problems at the border, for example.
Representatives of the British business community will not be happy with the minister’s statements. In October, representatives from a number of major sectors, including the automotive sector, already warned of the consequences of such a ‘hard’ Brexit. “Decades of frictionless trade with the UK’s largest market, created by thousands of large and small companies, should not just suddenly disappear,” said the Head of the Confederation of British Industry in October.