Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
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.
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Mutual recognition of standards requires mutual agreement of those standards. If the standards change on either side, those standards would need to pass the test to see if they are still equivalent otherwise the system falls down. Standards can and do change over time. For example, the Machinery Directive has changed 5 times since it was introduced in 1998.
Of course the EU doesn't want a 'Singapore' on its' borders, why would it and why would the EU facilitate this? The EU is a rules based organisation and 27 countries are willing to participate to create and abide by those rules to reap the benefits of things like the single market. If push came to shove, I think the EU countries would rather leave the UK out in the cold than undermine where they are right now.