TThe government has recently announced that it will not impose a costly new customs bureaucracy at this time, considering the current circumstances. Originally planned for January 2021, the checks on goods entering Britain from the EU have seen numerous delays and were due to begin next month, but now they won’t be implemented until 2024.
Goods moving from the UK to the EU already require customs paperwork, which has created challenges for UK exporters and forced some out of business completely. Recognizing that British consumers and businesses don’t need the same burden on imports, the government acknowledges that import checks would contribute to inflation. In essence, this acknowledges that the friction between the UK and its neighboring trading bloc is harming the economy. However, publicly admitting this would highlight the imprudence of leaving the single market in the first place.
In another development last week, the government agreed to safeguard workplace rights that may be at risk when EU law is removed from UK statutes. Under EU treaty provisions, women are entitled to equal pay for equivalent work, provided there is a common “source.” This condition protects employees of outsource providers. The Labour party has committed to replicating this protection in UK law, and the government has been pressured into making the same pledge.
Earlier this year, the government watered down a law that would have led to the automatic removal of many other social protections from the statute book at the year’s end. This concession was made to address the concerns of investors who preferred the continuity of existing rules over the Eurosceptic idea of significant regulatory changes.
Last month, the government abandoned plans to enforce a UK-specific quality assurance mark for goods sold in Britain, realizing that the European CE mark would suffice “indefinitely.” This late recognition was driven by the understanding that exporting businesses would still require European certification, and none of them wanted the additional cost of a redundant UKCA mark – a symbol of hollow sovereignty.
A pattern of subtle dilution in Brexit policies is becoming evident. Each retreat reinforces the belief among hardline Eurosceptics that their vision is being betrayed. Rishi Sunak finds himself caught between the political obligation imposed by his party to portray leaving the EU as a great achievement and the economic necessity to alleviate the costly consequences of the break from Europe. He can only maintain this illogical stance because the opposition, too, is committed to a similar contortion – advocating for closer ties to the EU without a substantial reintegration.
This would be a manageable problem if the challenges brought about by Brexit were stable or expected to ease. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Brexit is not a one-time event but a trajectory that requires correction, rather than mere adaptation. Reaching closer political and economic alignment between the UK and the EU will take time, as the necessary bilateral structures are almost nonexistent, and the political will to create them is lacking. However, the alternative is a worsening economic decline driven by a doctrine supported by a diminishing number of individuals. The gradual acceptance of reality-based thinking in Rishi Sunak’s approach to European policy is a positive change, and the sooner that reality is expressed more boldly, the better.
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