Quote:
Originally Posted by jonbxx
You are absolutely right in once we have completely left the EU, we can set any standards we want. At present, as you say, we are fully aligned with EU standards and if we produce goods that do not conform with those standards, there is a dispute system in place.
However, what happens if we decide to change our standards, for example. letting the famous chlorinated chicken in? All of a sudden, we are no longer aligned and goods will be stopped at the border and cannot be sold. This of course works both ways - the EU could change standards making goods produced in the EU unsellable in the UK.
Without a dynamic alignment, there could be many banana skins down the line
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You’re misunderstanding the principle of mutual recognition of standards, which is what almost always underpins an international trade deal.
The EU’s demand for dynamic alignment has nothing to do with goods becoming unsellable. It’s about their concerns that their rules make their businesses uncompetitive if a nearby, major economy like the UK decided to deregulate, sell into the single market and undercut their domestic producers in ways those producers can have no answer for.
What they are demanding is for the UK to be treated differently to other countries it has done a deal with, not out of friendship and a desire for more trade, but out of fear that they have lost influence over one of the world’s major economies and for the potential consequences of that for them.