[ad_1]
Jeremy Hunt is to strike a financial services deal with Switzerland aimed at easing UK firms’ access to the Swiss market and vice versa.
The Chancellor is in Bern on Thursday to sign the agreement, which is based on the mutual recognition of each other’s laws and regulations governing the sector, the Financial Times reported.
It will create a framework to facilitate cross-border trade in wholesale financial services, with the Treasury hoping this will boost the City of London.
The Chancellor will ink the deal with Swiss finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter.
The FT said Mr Hunt will attribute the UK’s ability to strike its own trade deals with major finance hubs to Brexit.
The Treasury told the newspaper: “The Bern Financial Services Agreement is only possible due to new freedoms granted to the UK following its exit from the EU.
“The agreement will enhance the UK and Switzerland’s already thriving financial services relationship.”
It added that the two nations’ relationship “is underpinned by a commitment to international standards and a shared belief in the value of open and resilient financial markets”.
When Britain left the bloc it risked losing the benefits of its former trading arrangements with Switzerland, which were based on EU rules despite it not being a member state.
The new deal permanently restores the UK’s access to Switzerland’s financial sector and opens to door to a wider trade deal, according to the FT.
Labour MP Paul Blomfield, who is the co-convenor of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission, said: “This agreement will be well received across the City and is a welcome acknowledgement from the Government that providing regulatory certainty between UK industries and their most important markets is a good thing.
“The EU remains the largest overseas market for most British businesses and protecting them demands similar arrangements of beneficial regulatory alignment, which will break down barriers, reduce costs and unlock the huge potential of the UK economy.”
[ad_2]
Source link