The UK's industrial, employment food and safety standards in many cases already exceed EU minimums. What the UK is saying no to is EU oversight of these things, a very straightforward problem to overcome. As I mentioned upthread, I understand that the UK has already quietly agreed in principle to an independent arbitration body. Dumping generally works the other way, as in Germany, with the significant inbuilt advantage of its Euro accession rate vis a vis the other EZ nations, effectively dumping in everyone else's direction. Again, on level playing field and rules of origin, the UK is very sensibly refusing the generous offer of EU oversight, which would enable the EU to squash UK competitiveness at its will.
No independent sovereign country in the world would agree to oversight ('direct effect') by the supreme court of another party simply in order to get a pretty thin, standard FTA. The potential for abuse is almost unlimited. The UK is not refusing its 'obligations' at all, utter tosh. It's simply refusing to do it the way the EU demands.