Brexit will cost the European Union about half a percent of GDP

Britain's departure from the European Union (EU) will cost a block of about 0.5 percent of its economic output over the next 24 months. But for the United Kingdom, Brexit will be more than four times more painful. The European Commission said this on Thursday. Britain withdrew from the EU at the end of January last year. However, during the so-called transitional period, it maintained full access to the European single market until the end of 2020. It was not until 1 January 2021 that a new trade agreement came into force. "For the EU, the United Kingdom's exit from the bloc under the terms of the FTA is estimated to average on average around 0.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of 2022, and for Britain it will be 2.5 per cent of GDP. , " the Commission said in its winter forecast. The EU-UK trade agreement covers goods, services, investment, competition, subsidies, tax transparency, air and road transport, energy and sustainability, fisheries, data protection and social security coordination. In trade in goods, the agreement provides for zero tariffs and zero quotas on all goods that comply with the relevant rules of origin, which are more favorable conditions for trade than the standard conditions under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Compared to the autumn estimate, when the EU relied on WTO trade conditions, as London and Brussels threatened not to reach a free trade agreement, the negative impact of Brexit was reduced by an average of about a third for the EU and about a quarter for the United Kingdom, the Commission noted. However, the Commission recalled that, although there are no duties or quotas on goods, there are significant non-tariff barriers to trade in both goods and services. "In short, although the FTA improves the situation compared to the outcome without an EU-UK trade agreement, it cannot come close to the benefits of trade relations during EU membership," the Commission added.