Menu

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said that failure by the United Kingdom to rollover all existing trade deals, plus the prospect of a “no-deal Brexit,” will put UK exporters at a significant disadvantage. The UN agency issued this caution as the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was trying to ram through the exit of the UK from the European Union on October 31, 2019, raising the risk of so-called no-deal Brexit.

UNTACD said that about 20 percent of UK’s non-EU exports, valued at $2 billion, were at risk of facing higher tariffs from countries such as Turkey, South Africa, Canada and Mexico. Sectors such as apparel, textiles, motor vehicles and processed food products would face higher tariffs, with losses as high as $750 million in the motor vehicles sector.

These outcomes pale in comparison to the export losses that the UK will experience in the EU market in the case of a no-deal Brexit. UNCTAD’s research indicates that a no-deal Brexit will result in UK export losses of at least $16 billion, representing approximately 7 percent loss of overall UK exports to the EU.

Most of the UK losses in the EU market would be concentrated in motor vehicles ($5 billion), animal products ($2 billion) and apparel and textiles (encompassing about $2 billion).