Joining a pan-European agreement which could bolster post-Brexit trade would not cross the Government’s “red lines” for its future relationship with the EU, Downing Street has indicated.
Maros Sefcovic, the official who led post-Brexit negotiations for the EU, told the BBC that the UK joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM) is “something we could consider”.
The deal allows for tariff-free trade of goods across Europe, as well as some North African and Levantine nations.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister responsible for UK-EU relations, had said he and his colleagues “do not currently have any plans” to sign up to the agreement.
But No 10 did not rule out the UK joining the PEM in future.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he would not get into a running commentary on specific options up for discussion with the EU.
Asked if the PEM would cross the red lines set out in Labour’s manifesto for EU ties, he said: “The arrangement that’s been discussed is not a customs union.
“Our red line has always been that we will never join a single market, freedom of movement, but we’re just not going to get ahead of those discussions.”
Some business groups have backed the UK joining the PEM as it would help to maintain complex supply chains, but the previous Conservative government chose not to pursue it as part of a post-Brexit trade agreement.
Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Sefcovic said the idea had not been “precisely formulated” and the “ball is in the UK’s court”.
The UK Government has begun consulting businesses on the benefits of PEM and how it could help cut red tape and improve trade, the BBC said.
Mr Sefcovic also told the broadcaster he would like to see the possibility of a full-scale veterinary agreement between the EU and UK reviewed.
If UK food and farm products were given single market treatment, “we would have to have the same rules and we have to upgrade them at the same time – we call it dynamic alignment”, he said.
In the Commons, Cabinet Office minister Mr Thomas-Symonds was asked by the Conservatives to rule out dynamic alignment.
The step “potentially brings the European court back into having jurisdiction over the United Kingdom”, shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said.
The Tory frontbencher added: “Will he rule out the ECJ (European Court of Justice) having jurisdiction over the UK in any regard in future?”
Mr Thomas-Symonds responded: “We’ve set out our red lines in our manifesto, we’ve set out the examples of things we are seeking to negotiate. That is already there.”
The minister also told MPs: “We do not currently have any plans to join PEM, and we are not going to provide a running commentary on every comment that is made.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said ruling out the PEM proposal was an “act of economic negligence”.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel claimed Labour was engaged in a “disgraceful” programme of “bending the knee to the EU”.
Dame Priti, who was a leading supporter of the campaign to leave the EU, added: “These latest reports that the Government might shackle us to the European Union are deeply concerning, and once again make clear that Keir Starmer and his chums are all too happy to put their ideology ahead of our national interest, no matter the cost.”
