Resetting our relationship with the EU should be a no-brainer

Tomorrow, the government will fire the starting gun on the development of a new relationship with the European Union, with UK and EU leaders meeting for their first formal summit since Brexit. It cannot come soon enough.

It’s no secret that the business community was seriously sceptical about Brexit. Businesses thrive when they have open access to markets and as few trade barriers as possible. The form of Brexit we currently live with — however you cut it — is the opposite of that. It has made it harder for us to trade with our largest, closest and most important partner.

A chocolate manufacturer recently told me they can get their products into the US in two days, but France can take up to two weeks. One firm I spoke to thinks it’s crazy it must get veterinary certificates to export honey as it fights with the extra paperwork and costs.

And this is not a one-way street: we have chambers in many EU countries that have similar stories to tell. They have difficulties in getting fresh flowers and frozen chicken into the UK, or trouble in receiving prompt deliveries from us.

The results of all this have been clear to see. The government’s own numbers show that the long-term hit to our GDP from Brexit will be 4 per cent.

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As ministers in every government department search desperately for growth, resetting our relationship with the EU should be a no-brainer. And it should be at the top of the list.

Since we left the EU, the British Chambers of Commerce has consistently called for a form of Brexit that doesn’t cut British business off at the knees. Our latest data from more than 1,000 businesses shows that only 15 per cent of them said that our current deal with the EU was helping them to grow. That is a damning indictment of how successive governments have squandered the opportunity offered by our closest partner.

While Brexit enabled us to strike deals all around the world, just as important must always be striking the best deal right here in our own back garden. Failing to do so not only hurts the British economy, but also British people.

While it’s early days, what we’ve been hearing from the government about the shape of the negotiations is positive. As the British Chambers of Commerce has called for, agreement on animal and plant health regulations would make it easier for our farmers and producers to export, while a youth mobility deal can offer new opportunities to young people throughout the UK — and bring in new workers for UK sectors such as retail and hospitality that are crying out for help.

Other measures that have been trailed are promising too. Linking our energy and carbon markets will deliver cheaper prices for consumers — both industrial and domestic — up and down the country, and the UK signing a defence and security pact with the EU will open up billions of pounds worth of orders for our globally leading defence firms.

The world has changed in the past decade. The old certainties — that free trade would be the norm, that energy prices would be stable and that our nations would not need to operate under the shadow of war — have all been shaken. When the world changes, governments must change their priorities too.

Recent deals with the US and India are welcome. The growth of the Indian economy means it is only set to become more important, while the US is our second largest trading partner. But both deals pale in comparison to the prize over the Channel.

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The red lines that defined the first, fraught phase of Brexit should be abandoned. Business needs a government that is bold enough and ambitious enough to put an offer on the table that will make a real difference for the economy. An offer that could unleash growth throughout our economy and boost the EU as well.

Growth isn’t an abstract idea. It is more money for British businesses, more jobs for British workers and more revenue for the British government. The summit with the EU on Monday is a chance for the government to show whether it is serious about going for growth, or whether it will keep sticking to the same tired, ideological and impractical conditions that have held us back for nearly a decade.

Business is watching. And business is willing the government to deliver.

Shevaun Haviland is director general of the British Chambers of Commerce