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Economists for Free Trade

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 80.192.145.85 (talk) at 19:13, 20 October 2020 (→Criticism of Patrick Minford’s Economic Model). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Economists for Free Trade
FocusPromoting the benefits of Brexit
Location
  • UK
LeaderPatrick Minford
Website[1]

Economists for Free Trade, previously (before the referendum on Brexit) called Economists for Brexit, is a lobbying group that promotes no-deal Brexit, which is the situation where the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a corresponding withdrawal agreement treaty. They believe the UK is better off trading on the terms of the World Trade Organization rather than within the single market and customs union.[1][2] Lead by Professor Patrick Minford, the group maintains close ties to Brexiteer Conservative MPs.[3][4] Economists for Free Trade is one of few organisations predicting a positive economic impact of a no-deal Brexit.[5][6] The advisory board of the group includes Jacob Rees-Mogg, Owen Paterson, Matt Ridley and David Jones.[7]

Criticism of Patrick Minford’s Economic Model

A critique by the Centre for Economic Performance , a politically independent research centre at the London School of Economics, highlighted the flaws of Minford’s economic model for a no-deal Brexit.[8] Their analysis puts into question Minford’s figure for economic welfare in the UK to increase by 4% after Brexit and instead predict a 2.3% loss of welfare from Minford’s ‘Britain Alone’ policy.[8] According to the CEP, Minford overlooks the loss in services trade that would result from leaving the Single Market, such as ‘passporting’ privileges in financial services. [8]Furthermore, Minford’s assumption that goods prices would fall by 10% comes from attributing all producer price differences between the EU and low-cost countries to EU trade barriers, ignoring differences in quality.[8] Minford’s approach of ignoring empirical analysis of trade data seems predicated on the view that because statistical analysis is imperfect, it should all be completely ignored.[8] But such statistical biases may reinforce rather than weaken the case for remaining in the EU. [8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "No deal Brexit to give UK £140billion BOOM say economists - ignore 'project fear HYSTERIA'". 11 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Media statement: Economists for Free Trade" (PDF) (Press release). 13 March 2019.
  3. ^ The BBC and Brexit (PDF). News-Watch. March 2017.
  4. ^ "DeSMOG UK: Economists for Free Trade". 2 August 2019.
  5. ^ Gemma Tetlow and Alex Stojanovic (November 2018). Institute for Government: Understanding the economic impact of Brexit (PDF). Institute for Government.
  6. ^ "Why predicting the impact of a no-deal Brexit is so hard". The Economist. 25 July 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Economists for Free Trade: Who we are". 2 August 2019. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Cep.lse.ac.uk. 2016. [online] Available at: <http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/brexit06.pdf> [Accessed 20 October 2020]
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