Brexit will create 400,000 jobs? This is a fiction, as any economist will tell you | Jonathan Portes

Change Britain's wild claim is either deeply ignorant or deliberately misleading. Brexit is not getting the serious debate it needs

The costs and benefits of the UK's membership of the single market were widely debated before the referendum. However, the customs union was hardly mentioned. Yet it is the customs union that permits goods to circulate freely within the EU (and beyond, to a few other countries including, for the most part, Turkey) and which means the EU negotiates trade agreements with non-EU countries as a single entity.

So does Brexit mean leaving the customs union? It seems obvious that it would - what's the point of leaving the EU if we leave the EU in charge of UK trade policy? On the other hand, the Treasury is now taking a good hard look at the costs and logistical implications of having to reinstate at least some border checks for goods flowing between Dover and Calais, or Felixstowe and the continent (not to mention the thorny issue of the Republic of Ireland-Northern Ireland border).

Related: Economists dispute claim that Brexit could create 400,000 jobs

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