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Future trade relations between the EU and UK: options after Brexit

22 March 2018

piet-ep-paper

 

European Institute Academic Director Professor Piet Eeckhout has published a new study on Brexit and future trading relations for the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade. 


 

This paper, a major study for the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA), distributed to all MEPs, analyses the options and models for EU-UK trade post-Brexit in extensive detail. 

Abstract:

This study analyses the various options for the future trade relations between the EU and the UK, after Brexit. It examines the various models against the canvas of two distinct paradigms: market integration and trade liberalization. It finds that an intermediate model, which would allow for continued convergence and mutual recognition in some sectors/freedoms, but not others, is unavailable and cannot easily be constructed for legal, institutional, and political reasons. The stark choice is between a customs union/free trade agreement, or continued internal market membership through the EEA or an equivalent agreement. The study further analyses the effects of Brexit on the UK's continued participation in the trade agreements concluded by the EU. Notwithstanding a range of complexities, the study finds that such continued participation is not automatic but subject to negotiation.

Author: Professor Piet Eeckhout, Dean of UCL Faculty of Laws and Academic Director of the UCL European Institute.

Source: European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA)

 

Read paper (pdf)