CBI calls for the UK to remain in single market until ‘final’ divorce deal is sealed
BRITAIN will have to stay in the EU’s single market and customs union after it officially leaves in March 2019, a leading business group warned last night.
The CBI urged the Government to agree a transitional arrangement so the UK did not leave the two agreements until a ‘final deal’ for them comes into force after Brexit.
The group said it was impossible to imagine that details of a new trade deal would be clear by the end of the Brexit process.
But Eurosceptic critics said the demand showed that Remain supporters were trying to stay in the EU ‘by the back door’.
CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn urged negotiators to agree a transitional agreement as soon as possible to reduce uncertainty and protect jobs.
‘Instead of a cliff edge, the UK needs a bridge to the new EU deal,’ Miss Fairbairn said. ‘Our proposal is for the UK to seek to stay in the single market and a customs union until a final deal is in force. This would create a bridge to the new trading arrangement that, for businesses, feels like the road they are on.’ She warned that the prospect of a damaging cliff edge cast ‘a long shadow’ over firms, leading to lost or deferred investment decisions. She said: ‘Agreement is needed fast – waiting until March 2019 is too late. For businesses making daily decisions about where and how much to invest, this is the simplest answer to the uncertainty they face today.’
But Gisela Stuart, of the anti-EU Change Britain group, said: ‘The big business lobby would prefer to ignore the mandate from the referendum, and instead attempt to keep the UK in the EU by the back door.’
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, said: ‘The CBI underlines what Labour has been saying, that Theresa May’s Brexit strategy risks a cliff-edge for the economy and is a threat to jobs and investment.’
City firms will not need to move from London after Brexit, the head of the financial watchdog said yesterday.
Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said: ‘We shouldn’t use Brexit as an excuse to restrict the ability of the open market. Brexit should not be a barrier to free trade.’