Germany’s top London diplomat has called for Britain to make a deal to rejoin Europe’s custom union.
Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce on Thursday morning, ambassador Miguel Berger, used the example of Turkey to explain how a potential deal could work for Britain.
He said: “When we have the review next year, we can obviously look into possibilities where we can cut red tape.
“But let me really also mention Turkey has for more than 20 years a customs union with the European Union.
“So that would obviously also be a way to move forward, which would ease many, many things in the trade relationship.”
Berger said it was possible for the governments of the EU and UK to “do much more to strengthen the business-to-business ties,” Politico reports.
He said the current UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is “the most sophisticated and far-reaching trade agreement which exists in the world,” but that neither side has “used the potential” of the agreement “as it exists right now.”
In a post on X, Berger said he pointed out at the conference how the EU has a functioning customs union with Turkey.
Despite comments like this from EU diplomats, the Labour government is seemingly determined to carry on with Brexit no matter what.
Although the government has expressed its desire to reset the UK’s relationship with Europe, it has also made clear on a number of occasions that this will not involved rejoining the single market or customs union.
In its manifesto last year, the party said: “There will be no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement.”
The UK and EU will be holding their first summit on May 19, and Berger said Germany was hopeful for some concrete British proposals on how to reset relations with Europe.
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