Policy Briefing TCA, Non-tariff Measures and UK Trade

We study how increased frictions due to non-tariff measures (NTMs) have impacted on the UK trade in 2021 after the end of the Brexit transition period when the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was put in force. [...] The increased trade frictions due to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) measures as a result of entering the TCA played an important role in the decline of UK exports to the EU. [...] In the short and medium term, supporting firms, especially small and medium sized firms, to continue to access the global markets, while enabling the economy to take advantage of the welfare-enhancing benefits from trade becomes imperative. [...] Given the welfare gains of new FTAs are expected to be limited and effective only in the long term, UK domestic policies should be the focus to improve the competitiveness of exporters and their ecosystem. [...] In the medium and longer term, businesses will have to stay competitive to retain access to the global market, to perform better in it, and to gain more benefit from it.