Delivering her highly anticipated Brexit speech on Tuesday, May said the agreement should allow for the “freest possible trade” in goods and services between Britain and the EU’s member states. The Prime Minister added that any deal should also give British companies “the maximum freedom” to trade with and operate within European markets.
“We do not seek membership of the Single Market,” she said. “Instead we seek the greatest possible access to it through a new, comprehensive, bold and ambitious Free Trade Agreement.
“That agreement may take in elements of current Single Market arrangements in certain areas – on the export of cars and lorries for example, or the freedom to provide financial services across national borders – as it makes no sense to start again from scratch when Britain and the remaining Member States have adhered to the same rules for so many years.”
May also announced that the UK would no longer be a member of the Customs Union in its current state, to enable the country to seek trade deals outside of the EU.
The announcement has left key organisations in the manufacturing sector calling for more clarity.
James Selka, chief executive of the Manufacturing Technologies Association, said that “we urgently need more details as to what our trading relationship with the EU might look like”.
“We welcome the recognition that we need a comprehensive customs agreement and that trade should be as frictionless as possible,” he said.
“Advanced manufacturing, in the UK and Europe, depends on highly internationalised supply chains and leaving the Single Market raises many questions for our members.”
Terry Scuoler, chief executive of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said that the government must now work tirelessly to deliver a comprehensive new trade and customs agreement with the EU.
“As part of that process ministers must listen to businesses and support them in building viable bridges to carry the economy through a carefully managed and orderly transition,” he explained.
“In order for the government to lay the foundations of a globally competitive Britain, it must bring forward a clear and far-reaching industrial strategy that will enable businesses to seize the many expected opportunities the Prime Minister believes will arise after we leave the EU.”
The final deal that is agreed between the UK and the EU will be put to a vote in both Houses of Parliament. May’s full speech on her 12 negotiating priorities for Brexit can be found, here.
