OECD Has Called On The British Government To Conclude A Free Trade Agreement With EU

OECD Has Called On The British Government To Conclude A Free Trade Agreement With EU

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has called on the British government to conclude a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) to support economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. In the latest report on the British economy, published on Wednesday, the OECD said that a close-knit trade agreement would minimize the cost of Brexit. The organization expects the British economy to be 10.1 percent smaller at the end of this year than at the beginning of the year as a result of the pandemic. The OECD has warned that the British economy will not compensate for all losses by the end of 2021. It assumes that next year the country's gross domestic product will increase by only 7.6 percent. OECD Director Álvaro Pereira told a news conference that any form of Brexit would undoubtedly intensify the economic effects of the pandemic, but the trade agreement would have exacerbated those effects. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set Thursday's summit of EU leaders as the deadline for reaching a trade agreement. However, it is now widely assumed that negotiations will continue for a few more weeks. The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on 31 January, but there is a transitional period until the end of this year, during which the country actually complies with EU rules.