If you thought Brexit was done, think again. The coming recession has put Britain’s relationship with the EU back on the agenda.
There’s strong evidence the current hard Brexit relationship, negotiated by Boris Johnson, is doing Britain serious economic damage and getting in the way of trade.
As such, it was not a huge surprise to read reports this weekend that some inside government want the UK to get on the path to a Swiss-style Brexit deal.
What deal does Switzerland have with the EU?
Switzerland is outside the EU, but has a close relationship with the bloc: it participates on bits of the single market, enjoys free movement, contributes to the EU budget, and is a member of the Schengen free travel area.
Unlike Norway and Iceland, it is not a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), and unlike Turkey it does not have a customs union with the EU.
But its bespoke treaties with the bloc replicate parts of the single market in selected sectors.
In practice this means that Switzerland implements EU legislation covering particular sectors. Sectors covered include agriculture, public procurement, statistics, and transport.
The governance is extremely complicated: there are more than 100 different bilateral agreements between the two entities covered by 20 joint committees.
But the result is that Swiss businesses in certain sectors benefit from some advantages when it comes to trade.
Could the UK have something like this?
It doesn’t seem likely. For a start, the EU hates the deal Switzerland has and has long wanted to get rid of it.
The bloc has for years been insisting that Switzerland move towards a more standardised association agreement and has recently started paying diplomatic hardball on the issue – locking the Swiss out of its Horizon research programme, for one thing.
The main reason given for EU dislike of the Swiss system is that it is a pain to administer.
But more importantly from a UK perspective, the Swiss deal simply includes too many things that the UK government simply does not want.
For example, there is no appetite in government for a return to free movement of people, which is integral to the single market and Swiss model. There seems to be little appetite for aligning to EU rules. These are the main parts of the deal and it is hard to see what exactly is left once they are taken out.
A Swiss-style agreement would also not actually solve many of the biggest problems British businesses have been handed. The customs paperwork companies are struggling with would still be required because Britain would still be outside the single market.
So is this a load of rubbish?
Probably. But it does reflect the fact that some in governemnt recognise the problems of the current EU-UK relationship. Polls suggest public opinion on the relationship with the EU is shifting too. Britain is unlikely to end up with a Swiss-style relationship, but it may eventually get a closer one, whatever that looks like.
