If there is one thing that sums up the problem of Brexit and the difficulty in understanding how complex the whole issue actually is, it is the single market. During the campaign Daniel Hannan was recorded (HERE) saying that absolutely no one was "talking about threatening our place in the single market". There is even a campaign led by Chukka Ummuna, the Labour MP, to keep us in the single market.
Until last week I thought this actually was an option - the so called soft Brexit. But Richard Corbett, Labour MEP, explains (HERE) that there is no such entity as the single market that you can apply to join. It is simply a policy of the EU. If you leave the EU you are out of the single market. Other countries like Norway that are in the EEA do have access but not for everything (agricultural products are excluded for example) but they must follow the rules.
Mr Corbett has written the best and clearest explanation of the single market and the customs union. He says it is simply a political construct by members of the EU. Countries like Norway trade with the single market as we could but they have to abide by all the rules including freedom of movement and jurisdiction of the CJEU. We would probably get some sort of access to it but without influence over the rules.
He also makes an important point about the regulatory regime that the EU represents. It makes up about 13% of our laws. Not all of these are connected with the SM but many are. And we will have to keep most of them if we are in the single market because;
- Many are world standards from the UN or WTO for instance
- Many are EU standards which the world has adopted
- Many industries have cross EU supply chains (cars and chemicals for example) and must comply
- Many are common sense or worth keeping anyway
So in practice we are burdening ourselves with leaving the SM for very little practical advantage. The Institute of Directors (HERE) make it clear "Despite what you may have read, seen or heard, we cannot leave the EU and still remain part of the Single Market". What they suggest is leaving and reapplying for membership of the EFTA and then negotiating our way back into the EEA (see report HERE).
The Norway position is a good yardstick for us. But what we seem to want (assuming that is that anybody actually knows) is a deep and special relationship which gives us greater access to the single market than Norway (in the EEA) while following fewer if any at all, of the rules. Now this might be possible but imagine what Norway or Switzerland (in EFTA) will say or indeed what other EU members will say if we get a members access to the single market while shouldering none of the financial or regulatory burden. It is just impossible.
