Press

“The UK’s weak trade performance is unusual among advanced economies,” said John Springford, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. He added that most countries saw an increase in goods trade after the pandemic, but “the UK did not participate in the boom thanks to the trade barriers that it imposed upon itself”. “The obvious culprit is Brexit,” he said.

'Trump hoeft niet eens helemaal te menen wat hij zegt om de kracht van Artikel 5 van het Navo-verdrag te ondermijnen', zegt oud-diplomaat Ian Bond von der Centre for European Reform.

John Springford at the Centre for European Reform — best-known for his own work with “doppelgänger” analysis on the impacts of Brexit — finds Goldman’s analysis to be persuasive. 

In February 2023 a report by John Springford of the Centre for European Reform (CER)  claimed that Britain’s economy was 5.5% smaller than it would have been had it remained inside the EU.

“You have to be honest about the fact that defence budgets that range between 1.5 and 2 per cent are totally inadequate,” said Ian Bond, the deputy director of the London-based Centre for European Reform. “And you’ve got to get up to 3 per cent that you’re seeing now in the Baltic states, Finland and Poland.

The study by the Centre for European Reform (CER), a pro-EU think tank, said that businesses that make an array of products including sporting goods, children’s toys, jewellery and medical equipment have struggled the most with border costs imposed by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, leading to 30% less trade between 2020 and 2023 than if Britain had stayed in the trading bloc.
John Springford, an associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER), said at the time his analysis “shows that Brexit is leading to permanent depression to trade between the UK and the EU”.

« Toute personne s’intéressant un tant soit peu aux questions économiques ne peut nier un effet négatif du Brexit sur l’économie britannique », analyse John Springford pour Euractiv.