Veterinary deal and an agreement on chemicals
Labour’s desire to strike an agreement on animal and plant health rules is a good example of this.
The UK and EU are now two separate regulatory jurisdictions, which means increased border checks to ensure goods crossing meet the standards of the importing country.
Sir Keir wants an agreement to reduce EU checks on UK plants, live animals and food entering the EU and Northern Ireland, which continues to follow hundreds of single market rules as part of the post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Brussels will demand that the UK align with EU rules, which will be subject to European Court of Justice oversight.
Labour insists that the UK will not be a rule-taker but the EU rejected previous British calls for a deal based on mutual recognition, where both jurisdictions agree the other’s reach the same standard through different rules.
The same argument will come up when Labour asks for a bespoke agreement on chemical safety. The EU will allow the UK to return to being part of its chemical safety regime but it will have to submit to the bloc’s rules, without having any say in how they are written.
Foreign policy and security cooperation
Both Labour and the EU want to formalise foreign policy and security cooperation, which has been run on an ad hoc basis since Brexit.
Sir Keir and the Europeans see the value in codifying how cooperation on issues such as sanctions will work after the war in Ukraine – and it is in Western interests to present a united front to Putin.
However, an earlier offer from Brussels was rejected by the Tories because it was based on binding rules, which were seen as too similar to EU structures.
Net zero deal
The UK left the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, the world’s largest carbon market, at the time of Brexit and set up its own version.
The markets are an important part of the push for net zero in both jurisdictions and Labour is now reportedly considering how to realign the British market with the EU’s.