Trade: Orgalim Position Paper on future EU-UK trade relations

The UK’s membership of the EU ceased on the 31 January 2020, with an 11 month transition period, during which the majority of existing arrangements will remain in place. As of 1 January 2021, the UK’s relationship with the EU should be ruled by free trade arrangements, agreed between the UK and the EU, to be negotiated in 2020.

One overarching free trade agreement should govern all the future EU-UK trade relations. Orgalim calls for a focus on the quality rather than the speed of any future EU-UK free trade agreement. A free trade agreement is important as the annual value of EU-UK trade in products manufactured by Europe’s technology industries currently stands at €177 billion1. We believe a future EU-UK trade agreement should address the following objectives:

• Maintain the level playing field

• No tariff barriers and have simple rules of origin

• No non-tariff barriers

• Enable customs facilitation

• Enable access to public procurement

• Enable deployment of qualified personnel

• Ensure the inclusion of a provision facilitating the free flow of data

We ask to extend the transition period for two years in order to avoid disruptions to our highly integrated value chains, which are already under pressure due to COVID-19.

To read our recommendations in full, please download the position above.