The Law of UK Trade with the EU and the World After Brexit

Abstract

This is the story of the legal impact that Brexit has had on UK’s trade with the rest of the world, including the European Union (EU). This article explains how the rules governing UK international trade flows (incoming and outgoing) have changed with the country’s exit from the EU and the subsequent conclusion of trade agreements with trade partners, most importantly the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the EU. Any attempt to tell this story is inevitably incomplete and selective, and so is this article. It offers to readers without advanced knowledge in matters of trade (and trade law) an entry-point to understand what has happened in this field, without the partisan takes that have saturated the public debate in the past decade, and with the benefit of some years of hindsight. I will sketch the two main scenarios in turn, to track the transformation of a changing landscape: (i) the pre-Brexit world, and (ii) the post-Brexit world (more specifically, the world emerging from the entry into effect of the TCA on 1 January 2021). The transition period and the ‘no deal’ scenario will not be discussed in-depth, but