Study: Leaving EU with no trade deal will hit U.K. hard

Oct. 3, 2017 – A new study shows that leaving the European Union without a trade deal would hurt Britain more than the EU.

The study comes amid renewed suggestions that the U.K. should walk away from Brexit talks because of the perceived inflexibility of the bloc’s negotiators.

A new report by the international law firm Baker McKenzie shows that four of Britain’s key manufacturing industries – automobiles, technology, health care and consumer goods – would lose 17 billion pounds ($23 billion) of exports annually in the event of a “hard Brexit,” in which trade between the two sides reverts to World Trade Organization rules.

Ross Denton, a Baker McKenzie partner who specializes in trade, says the new data shows the EU is far less dependent on the U.K. as a market than the U.K. is on it.