Why would any business locate themselves in a country that has cut itself off from the world’s largest trading bloc when it could just do business in the world’s largest trading bloc? That is the question investors are no doubt asking themselves at Britain’s big investment summit this week. As the International Investment Summit begins, Brexit is the elephant standing across our trade flows.
Brexit has not been a “big bang” of damage but a slow drain of talent, investment and, ultimately, growth. Now the pandemic has receded, that is painfully clear. Aston University research shows a 27% drop in UK exports and a 32% decline in imports from the EU since 2021, which translates to an annual loss of £183bn.
On the ground, complaints are legion. The Brexit border tax means you can’t import agricultural products without facing extortionate charges and delays. VAT rules for 27 different countries create paperwork headaches of epic proportions. Our creative industries are haemorrhaging touring contracts because of visa and work restrictions. The last government had to offer subsidies to the car and steel sectors to retain them – our chemical and pharmaceutical companies understandably want to be next. Higher education – another great British export – has not recovered from being kicked out of Horizon and Erasmus, or the lost international students.
Yet as much of a car crash as this is, this is not an argument to rejoin now – however much some believe this is possible. Even if a referendum on rejoining could be won (and there’s plenty of indication it could, though little appetite to revisit the divisions of last time), returning is not our decision to make alone. We spent years walking out, and it would take years to crawl back. Meanwhile, businesses have critical decisions to make in the next 18 months that they put on hold after the madness of Liz Truss’s mini budget. Asking them to wait another decade for certainty of what our future relationship with Europe will be – with the risk that it may not improve at all – is a non-starter.
This is an argument for honesty from those who still claim Brexit offers benefits, and an argument for focus from those who wear blue berets with gold stars. Already we have shown that we can build strong relationships with our European neighbours to support our defence and energy security. The coming days will showcase the best of British production, talent and innovation. We need to show the best of British politics too. We need to set out the details of our post-Brexit salvage operation that will make people want to invest in the UK because of its approach to Europe, rather than in spite of it.
Businesses say they would invest more if the UK were to align its regulations with the EU. To do that, the government should accept amendments tabled by crossbenchers this week to the product regulations and metrology bill. These amendments give businesses certainty that we won’t ask them to choose between making products to UK standards or European ones. Any decision to differ would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and approval – giving confidence that we want to reduce the red tape created by leaving the EU, rather than add to it.
That’s just the beginning. A deal to establish rules for food safety, and animal and plant health could help reduce the madness of what is happening at our ports. Rejoining the pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention would address further complexities that come with trading across the continent. Contrary to the claims of Brexiters, a youth mobility deal does not amount to freedom of movement because it sets explicit limits on travel. Rather than rejecting the idea, we should not only negotiate such a deal, but use it as the basis for wider visa reforms to ensure everyone who has a job, apprenticeship, place to study or business to run, can do so without risking a criminal record for entering a country. Europe has shown itself remarkably willing to be flexible if it is in our mutual interests. Looking ahead to the review of the trade and cooperation agreement, we should be clear that Britain wants these gains for all our workers and businesses, and we are willing to talk about how to get there.
The Brexiter fantasy of becoming Europe’s answer to Singapore disintegrated as soon as it came into contact with the modern supply chains of the 21st century. The barriers to trade, paperwork and pain that leaving the EU has created will make the job of all those at the investment summit an uphill struggle. With growth in short supply, we can’t afford to ignore those on our doorstep, or assume that deals with nations thousands of miles away will compensate.
You can’t make Brexit work, but you can fix some of the problems it has created. For “global Britain” to succeed, it has to be a good neighbour as well as a seasoned traveller.
Stella Creasy is the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe and the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow
