Get the EU to recognise our qualifications in trade deal, accountants tell Labour
A leading industry group for UK accountants has called on trade minister Douglas Alexander to agree a matching up of qualification standards with the European Union if a trade deal is struck.
The UK government is locked in intense negotiations with the EU officials, with Labour hoping it can ease post-Brexit regulations and help boost growth.
In a final call to government ministers ahead of a summit to be held in London on Monday, chief policy officer at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Iain Wright has written a letter demanding the government to cut red tape for businesses.
Demands include an agreement on VAT which would replicate that seen with Norway where businesses do not need to appoint “fiscal representatives” as part of tax compliance.
The added costs of following complex rules overseas is a “major barrier for UK companies selling into the EU”, Wright claims.
Another policy introduction would see mutual recognition of professional qualifications re-introduced, with restrictions imposed on services exporters in areas such as chartered accountants holding back growth.
Wright said it was important that the government aligned standards with the EU “as quickly as possible”.
“Several ICAEW members working in small and medium-sized businesses have told us that they have either decided to stop exporting to the Eu altogether, or have not started to do so at all, due to difficulties navigating the Trade and Cooperation Agreement,” he wrote in a letter to Alexander.
Trade deal differences
Negotiations over the deregulation of services trade between the EU and the UK has largely been overshadowed by discussions over the introduction of a youth mobility scheme and reported disagreements on whether food and drink checks could be eased.
The UK is looking to secure a ‘veterinary’ deal which would reduce paperwork and inspections placed on food being transported to the EU.
Critics say alignment of standards would represent a “surrender” to the world’s largest economic bloc and prevent the UK from setting its own rules, as shadow trade secretary Andrew Griffith put it.
Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, who is overseeing the UK government’s attempted rapprochement with the EU, has publicly said that a “smart, controlled youth mobility scheme” would be beneficial to young adults, suggesting an agreement on migration could be secured.
The UK has similar agreements with the likes of Australia and Japan but a deal to loosen immigration rules would come within days of Keir Starmer saying he did not want Britain to become an “island of strangers”.