It is a leading player in finance, and it’s companies are giants in life sciences and consumer goods. There were already lots of similarities between the Swiss and British economies, except that they are quite a bit richer and more successful than we are. Now we have something else in common: we have both been frozen out of the European Union’s Single Market. But hold on. Isn’t there an opportunity there as well? In truth, this would be the perfect moment to offer the Swiss a deal that would work for both sides – a common market.
The Swiss have always had a fractious relationship with the EU. It has turned down every offer to join, preferring to maintain its fierce independence, and relied instead on a huge range of deals that give it effective access to the Single Market. Over the last couple of years, the EU has been trying to consolidate that into a single agreement that would bind the country into rules and regulations imposed by Brussels that could be legally enforced.
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