Why Boris Johnson’s EU deal would actually mean a hard Brexit

The prime minister’s would-be agreement with Brussels will add significant bureaucratic burdens on business, leading to less trade and fewer jobs, Sean O'Grady writes

Boris Johnson is seeking a free trade agreement with the EU (Reuters)

A standard Eurosceptic claim (truthful or not) is that when the UK joined the then European Economic Community in 1973, the British people thought they were joining a free trade area – an economic zone mostly devoid of political and supranational ambitions. The corollary, so it is claimed, is that Boris Johnson is now putting things right by initiating a new – genuine - free trade agreement with the EU.

Whatever the history, this was and is a misreading and misinterpretation of what a free trade area actually is. A free trade agreement is a hard Brexit, which will add significant bureaucratic burdens on business, and inevitably lead to lower competitiveness, less trade, fewer jobs and less investment. It is incompatible with the kind of modern cross-border “just in time” manufacturing techniques that are now essential to competitiveness.

Whatever benefits the freedom to strike trade deals with, say, the US, India and China may one day yield, the short-term cost of loss of market share for UK goods in the EU will be severe. It could conceivably dominate the car industry, aerospace, much of agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the food and drink industry.