As part of a regular trade meeting, the members of the EFTA Parliamentary Committee will meet with Greg Hands, Minister of State for Trade Policy, and Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, to discuss key elements of the UK’s aims for the EU withdrawal negotiations, the timetable of the leaving process and the subsequent shaping of a post-Brexit arrangement. At a meeting with Suella Fernandes, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union, talks will also cover what shape the transition phase might take between the UK’s departure from the EU and the entry into force of a post-Brexit arrangement.
At meetings with shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer (Lab) and Vicky Ford MP (Con), who chaired the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) between 2014 and 2017, talks will cover the UK Parliament’s work on Brexit in the coming years from differing party political perspectives. The members of the EFTA Parliamentary Committee will also meet with the chair of the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee and the chair of the House of Lords European Union Committee.
A meeting is also planned with members of the House of Commons International Trade Committee to discuss the future shape of trade relations with the EU and the rest of the world, particularly with regard to EEA countries and Switzerland. Relations between Switzerland and the UK today are primarily based on bilateral agreements with the EU. However, these will no longer be applicable for relations between Switzerland and the UK following the UK’s departure from the EU. Further meetings are planned with representatives from various business associations and from the field of science and education.
The EFTA countries and the UK are important trading partners and their economies are closely linked. In 2017, the UK was EFTA’s third largest export market for goods after Germany and the USA. For Norway, it is the single largest export market, while it is Switzerland’s fifth largest market and Iceland’s third largest. Vice versa, the EFTA markets contribute about 5 per cent of the UK’s external trade for both goods and services. In view of the UK’s planned departure from the EU, the members of the EFTA Parliamentary Committee place great importance on the shape of future relations with the UK.
The Swiss delegation to the EFTA Parliamentary Committee meeting in London will include its president, Council of States president Karin Keller-Sutter (FDP, SG), its vice president, National Council member Eric Nussbaumer (SP, BL), National Council members Kathy Riklin (CVP, ZH), Thomas Aeschi (SVP, ZG) and Hans-Peter Portmann (FDP, ZH), and Council of States members Hannes Germann (SVP, SH) and Konrad Graber (CVP, LU).