UK Plans to Join Pan-European Customs Convention... Ball in UK's Court

Revealed in Interview with EU Trade Chief

It has been reported that the United Kingdom, having left the European Union (EU), is considering joining the Pan-European Customs Convention to reduce trade barriers.

Yonhap News

Maros Sefcovic, EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, mentioned in an interview with the BBC on the 23rd (local time) in Davos, Switzerland, that “the Pan-European (customs) area is something we can consider,” referring to the UK’s initiative to ‘reset relations with the EU.’

The convention referred to by Commissioner Sefcovic is the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM) on rules of origin, which allows manufacturing supply chain parts and materials sourced from member countries to be used for duty-free trade. Currently, this convention includes the EU, as well as European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members such as Switzerland and Norway, Barcelona Process participants like Egypt and Israel, and Ukraine.

Commissioner Sefcovic stated, “The ball is in the UK’s court,” noting that the UK government has not yet concretized plans to join this convention. The BBC reported that the UK government is assessing whether joining this convention would actually be beneficial.

Commissioner Sefcovic also pointed out that agreements on agricultural, livestock, and fishery quarantine, as well as the UK-EU fisheries agreement expiring next year, need to be reviewed.

The Keir Starmer-led Labour government, launched in July last year, has drawn a line by stating it has no intention to rejoin the EU but has emphasized the need to ‘reset’ relations with the EU for security and economic growth.

During the previous Conservative government, the EU proposed easing mobility barriers that hindered employment and education for young people aged 18 to 30, but both the Conservative Party and the then-main opposition Labour Party maintained that ‘free movement’ ended with Brexit and rejected the proposal. Reflecting on that situation, Commissioner Sefcovic said, “That was not freedom of movement, and we made that clear.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.