02 Aug 2024 --- DS Smith’s group chief executive Miles Roberts believes now is an “excellent” moment for the new Labour government to reset Britain’s relationship with the EU to support more efficient trade. He flags the imperative of packaging industry investments and the need to align with EU trade standards. “The EU is developing new legislation, but the UK is not keeping pace with the new standards which creates automatic divergence with our biggest trading partner, and generates avoidable costs to business,” says Roberts. “We need regulatory alignment – unless something is demonstrably not in the UK’s own interest, then we should be considering aligning with EU rules, so that we have less friction.”
