The next UK–EU reset summit has been delayed until late November at the earliest as Britain seeks protection from a developing “Made in Europe” strategy designed to favour European production and supply chains.
The summit had been pencilled in for November 6, according to the Financial Times.
Negotiations continue across food-border checks, youth mobility and carbon-market linkage.
Industrial policy is becoming another source of friction.
The EU is developing measures intended to encourage governments and businesses to buy and manufacture more within Europe.
Britain wants UK companies to retain access to those supply chains.
The British Chambers of Commerce says current procurement proposals do not directly exclude British companies.
Its concern is what comes next.
Britain is now a third country. If European preference becomes embedded more widely in procurement and industrial policy, UK manufacturers could find themselves competing from outside a system increasingly designed to favour production within it.
THE POST-BREXIT TRADE-OFF
Britain left the European Union partly to regain control over its own laws and economic policy.
That freedom works both ways.
The EU also has the freedom to design its market around the interests of its members.
Britain therefore wants closer economic integration without returning to EU membership, while Brussels increasingly wants its enormous internal market to strengthen European industry.
That tension cannot be eliminated by another summit.
Britain can make its own rules.
The EU can favour its own producers.
The practical question is how much access Britain can negotiate from outside.
Sources
Financial Times: UK–EU reset talks delayed again
British Chambers of Commerce: ‘Made in Europe’ threat remains
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