Brexit barriers should be lifted.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt acknowledged that Brexit has thrown up trade barriers between Britain and its biggest trading partner but claimed it will be possible to remove “the vast majority” over time.

On Thursday, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent fiscal watchdog, said the latest evidence showed that Brexit had had “a significant adverse effect on UK trade”, cutting trade volumes and relationships between British and EU companies.

Meanwhile, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, yesterday said: “Very clearly Brexit was an own economic goal. But, economically speaking, that has been very bad news indeed.”

The economic impact of Brexit has become a subject of increasing debate in business and among members of the public, but it remains taboo for the main political parties.

A YouGov poll this week found public support for Brexit had fallen to a record low of 32 per cent, compared with 56 per cent who thought it was wrong.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who backed Leave in the 2016 referendum, has played down the role of Brexit in Britain’s poor economic performance. However, at the G20 summit in Bali this week, he said that all countries had their “idiosyncrasies”.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said a Labour government would not rejoin the EU’s single market or customs union, let alone the wider bloc, although it would try to soften the impact of Brexit.

Reopening the toxic Brexit debate is seen as a sure-vote loser for both parties.

Even the pro-European Liberal Democrats accept there is no immediate prospect of a reversal.

Hunt told the BBC yesterday that he had “great confidence that over the years ahead, we will find outside the single market we can remove the vast majority of the trade barriers that exist between us and the EU. It will take time.”

www.sba.tax from financial times

Comments

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

EU business slide.

S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...

India- UK trade deal.

According to India's top trade official, talks with the UK regarding a trade agreement are progressing well, despite obstacles related to temporary work visas and the opening up industries like automotive and spirits. The Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, explained that India is seeking transition periods or greater market access in specific sectors due to its economy, which is slightly larger than the UK's and expected to outgrow it in the coming decades. If a trade deal is reached, it would be one of the most significant agreements for Britain since leaving the EU, and it would also be necessary for India, which surpassed the UK as the fifth-largest economy last year. Goyal stated that India aims to increase its economy from $3.5tn to $35tn by 2047, the country's centenary of independence. According to officials and diplomats in India, talks about a proposed trade deal may be finished by early September, just in time for the G20 summit in New Delhi. Nigel Hu...

Search This Blog