No-Deal Brexit Will Inflict Serious Pain on Europe, Too
A messy end to unfettered U.K. trade would be a big blow to the bloc, even if it’s economically more damaging to the Brits.
Bad for all of us.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeEuropeans seem more sanguine about Brexit than the British. More French column inches were filled with the death of former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing last week than with the risks of a messy end to decades of unfettered trade between the U.K. and the European Union.
The late president’s own view of Brexit — that it will be a bigger problem for the 66 million departing Brits than for the EU’s 450 million citizens — echoed broader public confidence that the bloc’s 27 members can absorb shocks better as a group than the U.K. alone. It also spoke to economic forecasts like the one from the International Monetary Fund, which estimates a worst-case scenario could knock almost 0.5% off the EU’s long-term potential output but almost 3% off Britain’s.