Follow Us

Follow us on Twitter  Follow us on LinkedIn
 

04 September 2019

UK in a Changing Europe: No deal will lead to prolonged and severe political and economic uncertainty


No deal will not “get Brexit done” rather, it will usher in a period of prolonged uncertainty for citizens, workers and businesses, which is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, a new report by academic think tank The UK in a Changing Europe reveals.

The report – No deal Brexit: issues, impacts and implications – shows that once the UK is outside the Article 50 framework it will be far harder, and take far longer, to get a deal with the EU. All member states’ national (and some sub-national) parliaments would need to ratify any deal.

The EU is unlikely to start negotiating a future relationship with the UK until the major issues in the Withdrawal Agreement – citizens’ rights, the divorce bill and the backstop – have been resolved. And the EU could withdraw or allow to expire any of the unilateral mitigations it has put in place, such as on road and air transport.

While the UK’s priority will be the continued flow of goods – even if this results in loss of tax revenue – the EU has emphasised it will implement existing rules, rather than prioritise the maintenance of trade flows.

The imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers between the UK and its largest trading partner will be a major shock to the UK economy. Beyond that, the fall in the pound – most if not all of which will be priced in well before October 31 – will push up inflation, as after the referendum, reducing real wages.

However, disruption on day one may not be as immediate and visible as earlier reports have predicted. Businesses, and government, have put in place contingency plans to mitigate against the worst effects. Therefore, the financial system will not collapse, the stock market will not crash and interest rates won’t skyrocket. [...]

  • Goods and manufacturing: the immediate impact of no deal would be keenly felt by manufacturing sectors across the UK which operate ‘just-in-time’ production systems across Europe, such as Airbus, Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover. Even minor delays at the border will have large knock-on effects that put at risk the viability of these systems.
  • Financial services: the medium and longer-term impacts of a no-deal Brexit on the financial services sector are harder to predict and potentially more severe. Under a no deal Brexit, it is unlikely that the UK’s financial services sector would return to its pre-2007/08 levels in terms of employment, output and tax revenue.

Full report



© UK in a Changing Europe


< Next Previous >
Key
 Hover over the blue highlighted text to view the acronym meaning
Hover over these icons for more information



Add new comment