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The British government hopes to join a Pan-European trade in order to reduce the supply chain after the Brexit for British goods exporters blocked by Brussels, according to officials on both sides.
Great Britain announced that the new trade strategy published in the Pan-Euro Mediterranean (PEM) closure as part of its last week has been enabled to increase the exports of the British goods in Great Britain.
However, the European Commission has made Britain clear that, according to four people familiar with discussions, they would currently not support such a step, in a step that the civil servants recognized, London had “frustrated”.
The blockade is the first sign of friction between Great Britain and the EU since the two sides terminated a “reset” About their relationship at a summit on May 18, which promised to improve energy deals and sign a so -called animal agreement in order to remove the exams on agrarless exports.
The PEM convention is an agreement between the EU and 20 other countries in Africa and the Middle East, with which inputs can be obtained for the production of supply chains in several countries in order to qualify for access to markets as part of free trade agreements.
To PEM is a step supported by British trade groups, including the British chambers of commerce. According to the trade strategy published in Great Britain, which was published last week, it could reduce “complex documents” and “increase flexibility for British exporters in which they move into their inputs”.
EU officials who are familiar with the discussion said that the Commission had decided that the United Kingdom was currently not in the interest of the EU, since it would increase the risk of products that are wrongly qualified to access a low tariff to the block.
Sir Keir Starrer has excluded when he follows the EU internal market again or entered a customs union with the EU again, but the government has pushed the government to consider, to join PEM Convention as an intermediate level to help exporters.
Trading experts said that the United Kingdom would need the EU cooperation to join the convention, since this would rewrite the conditions of the existing EU-UK trade agreement after the Brexit-OBWORM that PEM is not exclusively an EU agreement.
“In order for it to make sense for the UK, the EU would have to agree to include the rules of origin of the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement in the EU-de-facto blocking powers,” said Sam Lowe, trade advantage at advisory flint Global.
Brussels previously stated that it was open to Great Britain to join PEM, but since then the idea has become cold and argued that it wants to adhere to the agreements proposed in the “common understanding” that were set up between the two sides on May 18.
In 2023 was PEM outdated As a solution to a patient situation over the Brexit tariff for electric vehicles, while the EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič only said in January this year that the EU could “take” into account.
David Henig, a former British trader who is currently at ECIPE Think-Tank, said the reluctance of the EU Commission showed the continuing political challenge of repairing relationships with the block.
“The EU is not united about the importance of reset the United Kingdom, and problems like PEM can easily be caught in this, even though they are technically uncomplicated,” he said. “The British government will have to work hard in London and Brussels to build swing.”
Regardless of this, the EU still calls for a full implementation of the Windsor framework contract for Northern Ireland in a veterinary agreement that would eliminate the needs of most reviews that cross the Irish Sea.
The last phase of the Windsor framework deal came into force on July 1st Implementation as a “bureaucratic madness”, To say that 1,000 products do not have “for EU” labels, and 400 more have to undergo complete customs exams.
Machin added that the promised EU-UK veterinarian agreement “cannot come early enough”, but EU officials said that the Commission was “very firm” that the deal must be fully implemented before a veterinary contract by EU-UK.
Industry experts said that the Minister for European Relations, Nick Thomas Symonds, had called supermarkets for a meeting in Whitehall last Thursday to demand them to keep the deal or to endanger discussions about the veterinary agreement.
The EU has repeatedly expressed concerns that many large British supermarkets do not completely adhere to the rules.
The Commission did not immediately answer a request for comments.
The British government said that it was obliged to implement the Windsor framework and would check the advantages of PEM’s membership by involving the members of the trading group, including the EU.
“We will not make an ongoing comment on our ongoing discussions with the EU,” added the cabinet office.
