LONDON: UK government ministers said Thursday that Britain was not currently seeking to join a pan-European customs area, after the idea was floated by the European Union’s trade commissioner.

Maros Sefcovic told the BBC the EU “could consider” the UK joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM) as part of “reset” talks between the British Labour government and the 27-nation bloc.

The arrangement allows for tariff-free trade of some goods across Europe and North Africa and is separate from the EU customs union, which the UK left after Brexit in 2020 and which Labour has ruled out rejoining.

“We don’t currently have any plans to join PEM, and we are not going to provide a running commentary on every comment that’s made,” Britain’s EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told parliament.

Another minister, Matthew Pennycook, used similar language, telling BBC radio that Britain was not looking to participate in PEM “at the present time”. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he wants “a deeper relationship” with the EU than the one negotiated by the previous Conservative government following the 2016 Brexit vote on continued British membership of the bloc.

Starmer, who voted to remain in the EU and became prime minister last July, hopes closer relations with the bloc will help achieve the main objective of his premiership, which is to fire up Britain’s sluggish economy.

He has repeatedly said, however, that Britain will not rejoin the European single market, customs union or return to free movement of people from member states, calling them “red lines” in his negotiations with Brussels.

His official spokesman refused to be drawn on whether the UK would sign up to PEM, but appeared to leave open the possibility, telling reporters: “The arrangement that´s been discussed is not a customs union.” Starmer is due to attend an EU summit focused on defence early next month.