I'm in the rare position of being able to add to a Peter Foster Brexit thread. A big reason the UK can't reach a decision on technical standards and conformity assessment is that these are the subject of asks from the EU AND US. A problem of negotiating both at the same time. https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1285496946145267714

At the moment the UK follows the EU system where a Europe-wide voluntary standard is frequently a way to demonstrate conformity. They'd like us to stick with that system, and we don't completely want to lose the access it gives, but...

The US would like us to abandon the EU system and allow their voluntary standards to be defined as international, which threatens our ability to keep minimise technical barriers with the EU. And that's a top US ask behind only agriculture.

And this in a nutshell is why I was told by someone in another country that negotiating with the EU and US simultaneously is 'a nightmare' and probably not giving us extra leverage. Because we have to balance what they want, and then consider what we want. In multiple subjects.

Now if we sign up to acknowledge US voluntary technical standards as international their products get better access to our markets. But there's no reciprocation, our standards won't be recognised there. This is USTR acting as an agent for their companies.

If we sign up to EU approach on technical standards and conformity assessment we're more likely to get mutual recognition, and our manufacturing supply chains are much more integrated with EU than US. But Brexit politics, so we're asking for equivalence and changing our system.

So what happens - the clock runs down and UK industry isn't given a clear steer because to do so affects our two main trade negotiations, where difficult decisions need to be made with political and economic implications. Such as the future of manufacturing.

Technical standards and marks a classic case of the government running out of time to make big decisions they denied for a long time needed to be made, partly because advisors suggested politically palatable but internationally unlikely solutions.

Oh, and we have to add that there's also a CPTPP dimension, given that text is basically a US one on technical standards. It might all be navigable, but not easily, particularly by an inexperienced government with poor business relations. We all wait, and so it goes... /end