Frank van Oort, Professor of Regional and Urban Economics at Erasmus School of Economics, is one of the Brexit experts in the Netherlands. He has studied the economic effects of the Brexit on the UK and elaborates on the result in an article of De Correspondent.
Four years ago, the Brexiteers were determined that the Brexit would result in much economic growth for the UK. The economic advantages and the stricter regulations on immigrants were for most people the main reason to vote for the Brexit. The Brexiteers were positive that they could negotiate much better with individual countries themselves, compared to the EU.
According to Van Oort, the Brexiteers neglected to consider two important issues. First, most trade is conducted with neighboring countries. In this case that would mostly be European countries. Secondly, the Brexiteers overestimated their negotiation skills with individual countries. This was their main plan to compensate for the losses in trade within Europe. Other countries see the UK not as that important anymore as before, when they were still with the EU. Now they are a smaller party to the international trade and therefore less interesting to work with.
Van Oort states that trading with countries individually is not impossible, but it can be challenging to come up with new trade agreements.
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You can read the full article of De Correspondent, 29 January 2024, here.