Bloomberg: WTO warns UK about global impact of no-deal Brexit

24 August 2018

The head of the World Trade Organization said the UK risks trade disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit because it is “very unlikely” to have agreed tariffs and quotas with the other WTO members in time.

“The moment that other countries begin to sense an opportunity to increase their market share or increase a quota here or there, they are going to go for that,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo told BBC Radio 4 on Friday. “It is very unlikely that you’re going to have a 100 percent agreed outcome for all WTO members between now and March.”

Azevedo’s comments are a potential blow to the British government, which is proposing to replicate the U.K.’s current WTO trade terms after it leaves the European Union. But the U.S. and six other countries are opposed to that approach, and have said they expect Britain and the EU to make sure countries entitled to access rights are left no worse off than they currently are. [...]

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