Sense making of Brexit for economic citizenship in Northern Ireland

Irish construction cross border trade and Brexit: Practitioner perceptions on the periphery of Europe

“…This study uses qualitative and quantitative analyses to probe construction trade patterns in the construction industry in both parts of Ireland, and to examine how the respondents feel these patterns could be altered by various Brexit scenarios. At present, the media attention around Brexit has not focussed particularly on the construction industry, and academic research has focussed on construction in the UK (Ramiah et al 2017, Mohamed et al 2017 or trade in general across the Irish land border Lawless 2018, Brownlow andBudd 2019). This study is the first academic peer reviewed research to combine these areas.…”

“…The Irish land border will become an external border of the EU if, as currently planned, the UK government opts out of the EU single market and customs union (Basheska et al 2017), generating issues unique to the Irish and Northern Irish economies (Brownlow and Budd 2019). In this case, EU regulations and tariffs must apply in some form (de Mars et al 2016).…”

“…Any 'technological' solution put in place to mitigate the effect on transactions at the border must be agreed by all 27 members of the EU (Basheska et al 2017). In the event of a 'no deal' Brexit entailing application of World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs, a levy of 4-8% could be levied on basic construction materials crossing the border, with associated administration further erecting new barriers to trade (de Mars et al 2016, Brownlow andBudd 2019). As Lawless and Morgenroth (2019) explain, calculation of WTO tariffs depends on the exact nature of the product, and the patterns of trade flow for each product between the UK and Ireland, making the exact tariff difficult to predict for any one product.…”

Brexit and beyond: a Pandora’s Box?

“…Given its special constitutional status and its political position it can be argued that Northern Ireland requires a bespoke deal going beyond Brexit. One way to analyse the various options on offer is to examine them using the economic theory of club goods (Brownlow & Budd, 2019). For example, if the club good of No Deal was imposed on Northern Ireland it would significantly damage the economy and undermine economic citizenship.…”

“…The Agri-food sector and its GVCs therefore provide a useful comparative case study with respect to applying the theory of club goods in this context. It also provides a means of examining the impact on economic citizenship of alternative options between current EU membership and No Deal (Brownlow & Budd, 2019).…”