I've never really seen the "punishment" rhetoric outside the British press; among the EU-27, the assumption seems to be that the consequences of a hard Brexit w

I've never really seen the "punishment" rhetoric outside the British press; among the EU-27, the assumption seems to be that the consequences of a hard Brexit will be bad enough. The problem with a hard Brexit is all the non-tariff barriers [1] that will kick in. This is unavoidable: lack of tariffs was never that big a benefit of EU membership, because the EU has few tariffs as is and one of the lowest weighted mean tariff rates in the world. The benefit of the single market is that British products and services are basically treated just like domestic products and services in all the other member states for regulatory purposes. This will force Britain to largely keep regulations for products that are being exported in line with the EU's (as its biggest export market), while still adding costs [2]. Nobody seriously believes that the British economy will implode as a result; what it will do is retard economic growth somewhat (economists argue how much) and possibly create structural problems in sectors that are heavily reliant on exports. P.S.: I would also not rely on the Daily Express. It's probably one of the worst British tabloids. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-tariff_barriers_to_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-tariff_barriers_to_trade [2] https://www.ft.com/content/69202760-c3a2-11e6-9bca-2b93a6856354 https://www.ft.com/content/69202760-c3a2-11e6-9bca-2b93a6856...