On Tuesday 26 June, the association of European services industries, the European Services Forum (ESF), called on the Brexit negotiators to base the future relationship between the EU and UK on a solid regulatory framework in all services industries.
ESF fears major disruption for services industries as a result of the UK's withdrawal from the EU – in terms of employment and growth for each of the two economies, given that services represent 74% of EU GDP and 73% of the EU labour force and 80.4% of UK GDP and 83.5% of the UK labour force.
“The business community requires legal certainty as early as possible. We therefore call on the negotiators to take all necessary steps to minimise business disruption, to provide clarity as soon as possible on the Withdrawal Agreement, and to allow some flexibility in the management and duration of the transition period”, ESF states.
ESF fears that a transition period of 21 months is unlikely to be sufficient to cover all the stages needed to put in place the future relationship.
Services constitute 58.4% of EU total global exports and 63.5% of UK total global exports. Bilateral trade in services between the EU27 and the UK is deeply integrated as a result of progress towards the EU single market in services, ESF states.
EU-UK trade in goods is supported by efficient services, including air, rail and sea transport, port services, road haulage, logistics, freight forwarding, customs clearance, delivery services, professional services and insurance, ESF underlines. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)