Dr. Martina Lawless:

It is relatively clear, from the EU negotiation perspective, that protecting labour standards is an important part of what it will bring to the negotiation table. Divergence on a range of issues, including labour, environmental and food safety standards, are all aspects that the EU side is determined to protect. That will put pressure on the UK side in regarding how much it is willing to compromise for market access, or whether it is willing to continue signing up to EU-level deals or whether it will be determined to sign global deals that will allow it to reduce standards. The level playing field is an important feature of EU negotiations. Many of the other free trade agreements the EU has signed in recent years contain clauses on environmental and labour standards. While the traditional picture of a free trade agreement might be that people negotiate tariffs, recent free trade agreements, not least those negotiated by the EU, tend to go well beyond that in setting standards.