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Brexit: Customs Union or Customs Arrangement?

6th February 2018

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This FT clip looks at the post-Brexit options facing the UK, arguing that advisers are looking at whether it might be possible to enter a customs union with the EU.

The downside is that this might restrict the UK's ability to strike bilateral trade deals with other, emerging markets.

Of course, there was no possibility that these sorts of arguments could have taken place prior to the Brexit referendum, providing us with a better-informed choice was there? Instead, we had to make do with utterly unsubstantiated claims on the side of a bus.

To quote Michel Barnier: "Without a customs union and outside the Single Market, barriers to trade in goods and services are unavoidable."

Brexit: Customs Union or Customs Arrangement?

It is difficult to hear Cabinet Ministers still talking about wanting barrier-free free trade with the EU as if it's simply Brussels standing in the way. You decide to move away from a customs union to an FTA only, rules of origin automatically have to apply. It's a new barrier.
— Allie Renison (@AllieRenison) February 5, 2018

Average wait at French ports for non-EU lorries is 7 minutes. That implies 50 mile queues on M 2/20. Parallel crisis at Irish border. House of Commons will not/cannot agree deal with no customs union. May has saved her job for a few more weeks but killed Brexit this morning.
— Will Hutton (@williamnhutton) February 5, 2018

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Graham Watson

Graham Watson has taught Economics for over twenty years. He contributes to Tutor2U, reads voraciously and is interested in all aspects of Teaching and Learning.

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