In her letter the PM says “the rules of goods are long established – the last substantial change was in 1987”. This is untrue. The EU is regularly updating and extending its rules over business. Once we have left we lose the little influence we did have whilst still a member with a vote to prevent or delay the most damaging proposals.
“Many of the rules are based on international standards set by bodies that we will have a seat on”. Fine, then there is no need to bind us into the EU version anyway
“British businesses which export to the EU have been clear they will continue to follow the rules in order to continue selling into the European market”. Of course if a customer wants a given specification the supplier will meet it. That does not mean we have to adopt those same standards for everything we do at home, or be bound by them if selling to third countries with their own different requirements. Exports to the EU are only 12% of our economic output. The ability to improve and change our own rules is important in a democracy, and important to be able where we wish to do trade deals.
“any changes to our rules will be subject to a Parliamentary lock” – but each time Parliament objects to EU rules or changes to EU rules we will be told we are not allowed to alter them as it would disrupt our relationship and trade with the EU.
She argues we could still do trade deals with non EU countries, though the EU control over our goods market would make this much more difficult.
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