Brexit and the External Trade Policy of the EU

Abstract

Brexit is a huge challenge with enormous consequences for future UK trade policy. But it will also have an impact on the common external trade policy of the EU, and, thus, on one of the core components of EU foreign policy. This contribution analyses Britain’s role in the formulation of EU trade policy and the likely repercussions of its departure, particularly regarding the effectiveness of the EU as trade negotiator and the preferences it represents internationally. I use three theoretical lenses to address these questions: the first lens focuses on likely changes in the material power and interests of the EU; the second looks at the institutional consequences of Brexit for the formulation of EU foreign trade policy, and the third addresses potential changes in external perceptions of the EU as a trade power. It will be argued that neither the effectiveness of the EU as global trade power, nor the substance of its interests, will change substantially.

Competing Logics of Integration: EU Trade Post-Brexit

“…De Ville and Siles-Brügge (2019) instead argued that the Brexit referendum result has been used to reinforce the Commission’s external liberalization agenda, in that the EU’s discursive response to Brexit (and the 2017–2021 Trump administration in the US) has been to portray the EU as a champion of free trade in an era of global populism. While certainly, the substance of an ensuing UK-EU trade agreement will impact the decisions and preferences of specific industries and stakeholders within the EU affected by such an agreement, the overall logic of single market external trade is probably unlikely to undergo major shifts as a direct result of Brexit (Smith, 2019; Zimmerman, 2019). The efforts put toward the EU-China CAI would seem to support this: ‘When European companies get the chance to compete and thrive on such markets, they generate direct benefits to the European economy in terms of higher productivity, brought about by a larger scale of operations, exports, innovation and global competitiveness’ (European Commission, 2021a).…”