Brexit Opportunities: what will really make a difference for business?

Written By Best for Britain

While there has been much talk since 2016 about the opportunities for the UK to do things differently after Brexit, in practice this has proved difficult. In particular given that the EU is the leading global regulatory power, the costs of change from this have become more evident.

Opportunities may be harder to find than had been expected, but there will still be areas where the UK now has more freedom than previously. As a major global player in financial services, and given that equivalence arrangements were not put in place, there may be an opportunity for changes in approach. There have been some improvements made to the unilateral preferences given to developing countries, while visa policy has clearly evolved. Changes to schemes for agricultural land are another example, while negotiations over access to UK waters are now conducted on a different basis.

Business is calling for predictability and stability more than changes for their own sake from the EU approach. Pressure groups have been wary of divergence being equivalent to downgrading of protections. Yet there should be opportunities to demonstrate the UK doing things in a better way.

Featured
Elspeth Macdonald
Elspeth Macdonald

Chief Executive, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation

Elspeth joined the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation as Chief Executive in August 2019, following a career in the public sector. Before joining SFF, Elspeth spent four years as deputy Chief Executive at Food Standards Scotland, where she led its work on Scotland’s strategy and policy for food safety and standards, having spent the preceding 14 years in a range of roles with the UK’s Food Standards Agency in Scotland and London. Elspeth is a science graduate of Stirling and Aberdeen universities and started her working life at what is now the Marine Scotland Science laboratory in Aberdeen.

Anirvan Choudhury
Anirvan Choudhury

Senior Manager, Financial Services Regulatory Insights

Anirvan is a Senior Manager in PwC’s Financial Services Regulatory Insights team and advises clients on regulatory matters. Anirvan authors PwC’s market facing publications on insurance regulatory developments and how these developments could impact business models, governance arrangements and risk management frameworks of financial services clients.

Before joining PwC, Anirvan worked at the Prudential Regulation Authority for more than 7 years. Anirvan has presented at multiple industry events on the impact of regulatory changes. He is a qualified accountant and holds an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Sally Jones
Sally Jones

Trade Strategy and Brexit Leader, EY UK

Sally leads the EY Trade Strategy and Brexit team. She is a leading specialist in trade policy from both a global and UK/EU perspective.

She advises organizations across multiple industries including FTSE 100, Fortune 500, privately owned companies and trade associations. She also has frequent contact with the UK Government and the EU Commission.

Sally holds a BSc in Astronomy and Astrophysics from University College London.

Tim Sarson
Tim Sarson

Partner and UK Head of Tax Policy, KPMG

Tim Sarson is a partner and UK head of tax policy at KPMG, and EMEA leader for Value Chain Management. He has worked in the field of international tax and trade for 25 years. Tim has a particular focus on geography and location, helping companies and governments adapt to changes in the global landscape of tax, labour, trading flows and geopolitics.

Tim acts as the face of the firm on policy matters in the print and broadcast media, as well as being the primary policy contact for HM Treasury and HMRC. He led the firm’s tax response to the UK exit from the EU, including helping a wide range of businesses prepare for a potential no-deal exit. Tim has responsibility for KPMG UK’s submissions on domestic and multilateral (e.g. OECD) consultations, and sits on the DIT practitioners group consulting on developments in the UK’s international trade relationships.

William Bain
William Bain

Head of Trade Policy, British Chambers of Commerce

William has worked for the last 7 years with a range of companies, from global retailers to SMEs to innovative start-ups, advising on EU exit, the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, and the UK’s new trade and investment policies.

Previously, William spent over ten years as an academic lawyer specialising in Constitutional and EU law, and 5 and a half years as an MP (Glasgow North East), including roles as Shadow Ministers for Defra, Transport and Scotland and membership of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee.

Questions for discussion

How can we best identify the areas in which a genuine Brexit opportunity exists?

Is it inevitable that the need for EU market access will affect these?

What would be a good, realistic result for the UK in terms of fishing negotiations?

Are there sectors other than financial services where the UK is sufficiently strong to be a major player on global rules? What benefit can that bring?

Policy Options

Trade Unlocked 2023’s policy partner, the UK Trade and Business Commission, has recently published a comprehensive report containing policy recommendations to the UK Government.

The lead recommendation of the UK Trade and Business Commission is that ‘The UK Government should adopt a general policy of regulatory alignment with EU standards and regulations unless it is not in the UK's interests to do so’ and to consult, produce impact assessments and allow for adjustment times ‘should the UK decide to adopt regulations different from those in the EU’. This work would be assisted by a new UK Board of Trade which would ‘identify areas where the UK can gain economic advantage from actively aligning or diverging from the regulations of our major markets’.

Financial services is an exception, where there is no recommendation for the UK to fully align, rather in 45 to ‘fully implement a financial services Regulatory Cooperation Dialogue to foster a close and productive relationship with EU authorities’. The UK Government has recently started talks with Switzerland which may include financial services regulatory alignment as envisaged in the reports recommendations to ‘ensure the effective implementation of existing FTAs and seek to deepen these agreements where possible’.

TCA coverage of fisheries established arrangements until June 2026 under which part of the EU quota share was transferred to the UK, but with considerable concern in the sector as to how this was done. This led to recommendation that ‘The UK should prepare for the renegotiation of the fisheries chapter of the TCA, by focusing on improved quota shares for the UK's fishing fleet, improved control over UK waters and the reduction of non-tariff barriers, such as shellfish water quality’.


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