§ Lord Pearson of Rannochasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the statement by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 22 July (HL Deb, col. 3) that "Three million jobs in this country are linked to exports to the European Union and the best calculation is that the benefit to our gross domestic product is £1.75 billion", whether any of those jobs and of that benefit would be lost if the United Kingdom were to replace membership of the European Union with a free trade agreement with the Single Market. [HL5564]
§ The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)If Britain were not a member of the EU one option would be to seek to negotiate entry to the European Economic Area, which gives access to the Single Market and would be of benefit to British trade and jobs. It is not possible to calculate what the impact of such a withdrawal or renegotiation would be overall on British trade and jobs.
What is clear is that we would not have a say in shaping the laws, regulations and directives that make the EU's Single Market work but we would still be bound by them.
We would therefore be less able to design them in ways that would benefit Britain and provide jobs in Britain.