What's the rush? The pros and cons of extending the post-Brexit transition period

Trade Bites

Britain left the EU on 31 January 2020. But for the time being, hardly anything has changed in terms of the country’s trade with Europe. We’re in a transition period which will run until the end of the year, and during that period the UK needs to negotiate a whole new trading relationship with the EU. But is that period going to be long enough to get everything sorted out? There is an option to extend the transition period, but what difference would that actually make? And how might the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the negotiations? Chris Horseman is joined by Peter Holmes, Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex and a Fellow of the UKTPO; and Sam Lowe, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform.