Brexit: An Emerging Trade Opportunity in MENA

Following UK ’s exit from the EU , many countries–both in the Union and outside–have started to gauge Brexit’s possible impacts on their economies. Simply put, the EU countries will be affected negatively since they will be required to do some extra paperwork to import from or export to the UK from now on. On the other hand, non-EU countries have a chance to expand their export to the Kingdom, which is looking for improving its trade relations with the countries outside the Union. From this point of view, our study aims to investigate how the Middle Eastern and North African countries could benefit from this transition. We have made a sectoral analysis covering these countries to determine which sectors are advantageous in exporting to the Kingdom after the Brexit. We found that with Brexit, automotive sectors in Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia could enhance its export to the Kingdom. Businesses in Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt are likely to increase their exports for the textile sector. In the region, another critical industry is electrical machinery and its equipment in which Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, and UAE have an export potential. When we evaluate all the countries in the region, Turkey seems to have the highest export potential to the UK after the Brexit.