Trade

Europe

Post-Brexit customs: Max fac and the customs partnership explained

By Abbas Panjwani • 4 mins

The government outlined two post-Brexit customs options. “Max fac” aims to create a “frictionless” customs border. A customs partnership would create a system where the UK collects EU tariffs. Read

Europe

How the EU works: what is the customs union?

By Alex Stojanovic, researcher at the Institute for Government • 3 mins

The EU’s customs union was first established in 1968 by the six founding member states of the current EU (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). Read

Europe

Trade across the Irish border

By Joël Reland • 4 mins

Trade across the Irish border was worth at least £5 billion in 2016. Read

Europe

Could there be a new temporary customs union after Brexit?

By Will Hulme • 2 mins

The Department for Exiting the EU has today set out the government’s hopes for the UK’s future customs arrangements. Read

Europe

An introduction to the World Trade Organisation

By Aoife O’Donoghue, Associate Professor of Law, Durham University • 4 mins

The World Trade Organisation, or WTO, comes up again and again in the Brexit debate. Here’s our quick, expert guide to what it does. Read

Europe

Everything you might want to know about the UK's trade with the EU

By Full Fact Team • 5 mins

Does the EU need us more than we need them? Ultimately, future trade between the EU and us depends on what kind of agreement, if any, we reach with them after we leave. Read