However, Joël Reland, at UK in a Changing Europe, a think tank, says there are drawbacks. “For one, this sort of voluntary alignment does not bring any relief from EU regulatory checks. You follow EU rules, with no say over their design, but still don’t get market access.”

The bill is being passed through secondary legislation, meaning it receives far less scrutiny than if it were primary legislation.

Frost believes the arrangement will effectively enable Brussels to use Northern Ireland “to keep this whole country in line with EU rules in certain areas”.

“I simply don’t understand the logic, and it’s going to end up with us giving away a lot of powers to Brussels [which] are going to be very, very difficult to get back,” he told The Telegraph.

“The Government is pushing through this carefully named product regulation bill that gives powers to align our laws with the EU’s on all manufactured goods that will come into force probably towards the end of this year.

“Watch out for this concession after concession by stealth, bit by bit until we get pulled back into the tractor beam.”

Net zero

In another sign that Sir Keir wants the EU reset to be about more than just trade, Britain and the EU are exploring relinking their carbon markets.

Both sides charge manufacturers for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit as part of their goals to reach net zero. They do this through emissions trading schemes (ETS) that set an overall cap on emissions, with companies able to buy or trade allowances if they want to emit more.

Britain left the EU’s scheme at the end of 2020 as part of its exit from the EU and launched its own carbon market in 2021.

While carbon prices in the UK are currently almost half that of the EU, benefiting producers here, the planned implementation of the so-called EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) next year will introduce extra levies on electricity, aluminium, iron and steel, among other things, imported into the EU. The UK plans to introduce its own CBAM a year later.

Supporters argue that linking the two markets will lead to higher Treasury revenues and ensure that British companies won’t be stung by extra levies when trading with their largest export partner.

But Trump’s administration has already indicated carbon border taxes are in their firing line and that they could be subject to retaliation under plans that the US president has ordered to be drawn up “within 60 days”.