MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Hard Brexit proposal to remove all trade tariffs and barriers sparks strong controversy
A “hard” Brexit is “economically much superior to soft” argues Prof Patrick Minford, lead author of a report from Economists for Free Trade 
Other economists say cutting barriers sets off a “race to the bottom”. Monique Ebell says Minford “ignores decades of evidence on how trade actually works”. Removing all trade tariffs and barriers would help generate an annual £135bn uplift to the UK economy, according to a group of pro-Brexit economists. A “hard” Brexit is “economically much superior to soft” argues Prof Patrick Minford, lead author of a report from Economists for Free Trade, which insists that eliminating tariffs, either within free trade deals or unilaterally, would deliver huge gains.
Other economists say cutting barriers sets off a “race to the bottom”. Economist Monique Ebell from the National Institute of Social and Economic Research (NIESR) says Prof Minford “ignores decades of evidence on how trade actually works”.
Ms Ebell's own research showed that if the UK left the single market but made unilateral trade deals with major developing economies and the Anglo-sphere, it would only claw back about one-third of the 20-30% reduction in lost total trade by leaving the EU.
Ebell says many of the trade barriers that Prof Minford argues to be removed are subtle, non-tariff barriers, such as agreed common standards. Campaigners against a hard Brexit said the plan amounts to “economic suicide”.
Prof Minford's full report, From Project Fear to Project Prosperity, is due to be published in the autumn. He argues that the UK could unilaterally - before a reciprocal deal is in place - eliminate trade barriers for both the EU and the rest of the world and reap trade gains worth £80bn a year.
The report foresees a further £40bn a year boost from deregulating the economy, as well as other benefits resulting from Brexit-related policies.
Mr Minford - a professor at Cardiff University - says that when it comes to trade the “ideal solution” would still be free trade deals with major economic blocks including the EU. But the threat that the UK could abolish all trade barriers unilaterally would act as “the club in the closet”.
The EU would then be under pressure to offer Britain a free trade deal, otherwise its producers would be competing in a UK market “flooded with less expensive goods from elsewhere”, his introduction says.
He argues UK businesses and consumers would benefit from lower priced imported goods and the effects of increased competition, which would force firms to raise their productivity.
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Read all commentsEbell isn't an economist, but an idiot. Eliminating all the tariffs, standards, etc. will lower prices on imports, and give the British public a considerable drop in the cost of living, which is all the more desirable in the few years of economic turbulence and uncertainty that will come with Brexit, until things adjust to the new conditions. Some protected businesses will probably go under, but if they can't compete with foreign producers, they should be doing something else anyway. Nor, is Britain likely to lose a substantial amount of its trade with EU countries. If they didn't have use for the British products they import, they wouldn't have been buying them, and unless the EU taxes them until they are non-competitive and/or buyers find other sources at better prices, they will continue importing most of what they've been getting from Britain.
Aug 21st, 2017 - 12:01 pm 0Prof Minford is right that freeing-up trade as much as possible will give a boost to the British economy when it's most needed, and raise the general standard of living in the long term. The non-competitive businesses need to be shaken out anyway, and either find a way to compete, or quit. It's a waste of labour and resources to produce something that can be bought for less somewhere else -- they should be diverted to something profitable.
“It's a waste of labour and resources to produce something that can be bought for less somewhere else .”
Aug 21st, 2017 - 02:46 pm 0There is always someone that will produce products cheaper....China for Instance, but usually the quality is lower...
Demon Tree
Aug 21st, 2017 - 05:28 pm 0“says a random non-economist idiot posting on the internet.”
It's a slippery slope insulting posters that haven't insulted you and are merely expressing their opinion...
I like to be...reciprocal...
...I know what you are thinking, but I'm entitled having been insulted by almost everyone at some time or other...
I've built up an almost limitless supply of insults to dish out when appropriate...
...and saving them when I'm feeling magnanimous....;-)
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