A study on Brexit options available for UK and its implications for trade, investment and mobility of people between India and UK

Abstract

In a historical referendum result in June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union by a 52-48 margin. Since then Britain’s Exit from EU or “BREXIT” has been a talking point of many debates across Europe and the World. Primarily because, this event, on one hand jolts the existing status quo for many stakeholders including corporates, politicians, students and public in general, on the other hand it provides a lot of new opportunities as well for various stakeholders. In most recent turn of events, UK has officially left the EU on 31st January 2020. The bill to leave the EU has received Royal Assent and became an Act of the parliament. Now, its time for UK to negotiate the deal with EU for a smooth exit. This study will focus on the options available for UK for exiting EU and maintaining trade ties with other countries in the Union. India currently has strong trade ties with UK. It ranked 6th on India’s top trading partner list with a total of $9.8b in exports and $8.55b in imports. Trade with UK amounted to 3% of the total exports of India. Exports witnessed a strong y-o-y growth of 9.1%. The exports are led by consumer goods (61.06%), Textile and clothing (22.46%) and Machinery and electronics (14.67%). On the other hand, the imports are led by intermediate goods (41.59%), Stone and glass (30.95%) and capital goods (28.09%). This study aims at identifying the sectors which can be important for India and UK to explore specifically from the viewpoint of trade and investment. The study also provides insight on mobility of people across UK after Brexit as it will an important source of creating sustainable advantage for the country. Alongside this we will also try to capture one of the most probing issue of Human Mobility especially in respect of Students and IT professionals. Education has been free flowing in European countries till now, but post Brexit UK would like to have more Indian students and professional visiting to the country. In our study we will try to identify measures for the same.