Does the UK Need Access to the Single Market? What Trade Alternatives Are There?

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 18 (90%), Grenoble Ecole de Management, language: English, abstract: In 1973 the United Kingdom joined the European Union and the Single Market. Through this partnership, both economies grew and benefited from each other. However, recently politicians have questioned the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union and the Single Market, which led to political events such as the referendum for the Brexit. As the majority of the population decided to vote in favor of the Brexit, the necessity to analyze the dependency of the United Kingdom on the Single Market has increased. This report provides an analysis of that dependency with respect to different groups of stakeholders, including companies in the industrial and service sectors as well as communities. The analysis is followed by an identification and evaluation of the most plausible trade alternatives. The findings of the report state that the United Kingdom highly depends on access to the Single Market on the short-term perspective, might be able to reduce it on the long-term perspective, but will unlikely become completely independent from the access to the Single Market.