Counting the cost of Brexit’s impact on trade

TWO MONTHS after Britain left the single market and customs union in favour of a trade and co-operation agreement (TCA), complaints are multiplying, from seafood sellers and pork exporters (see article) to fashionistas and musicians. Some of these are teething problems, but most are the consequence of Boris Johnson’s decision to prioritise sovereignty over market access.

The biggest political problem is the Northern Ireland protocol, under which the province stays in the single market for goods and the customs union. The government chose this route as an alternative to creating a hard border on the island of Ireland, and has repeatedly denied that it implies border checks between the province and Great Britain. But these were inevitable; and now that they have begun, disrupting trade, the Democratic Unionist Party and some Tories are demanding that Mr Johnson scrap the protocol entirely. He will not do that, but it will be an issue in the election next year to the Northern Ireland Assembly.