The EU is developing a framework for services liberalisation via its regulatory mechanisms and executive agencies . It is , if you will , a constantly rolling and updating trade agreement . A bilateral FTA is static fixed to the conditions and regulations in existence when it is created , it depends on equivalence regimes . Equivalence is a political tool , it can be withdrawn by the other party at any time , or indeed , democratic will in either country may mean a government decides to amend regulation , thus ending equivalence . It also would only be between certain services , and would probably not policies on freedom of establishment , allowing EU citizens to start busineses in any EU state under the same conditions as a citizen originating from that state , or tendering rules for contracts to stop services being discriminated against . A multilateral FTA combined with a regulatory framework such as the EU ' s Single Market allows services to compete with each other under a common regulatory regime where one member state may not discriminate against another . If we leave the EU , any agreement we come up with in services , will always result in our service industry as a whole facing more restrictive barriers for access to the market than EU countries face for trade in services between themselves . Always .