[simonh]

Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore have developed under their respective trade regimes. Britain has developed under another and has huge industries employing millions of people dependent on the current trade regime.

Switching to a different model in a controlled way has a reasonable chance to be beneficial in the long run. Switching off the conditions under which the current system operates would be guaranteed to be catastrophic immediately.

[tim333]

Although I'm a remainer I kind of like the HK/Singa no import duties system. From a business point of view a big plus is simplicity - instead of lots of regulations you just import / export stuff. I spent a while in HK aged 19 when it was considered a low wage place (58% of UK GPD) and now they are wealthier than us.

I agree a no deal brexit would be a mess. If you were going to switch to a HK system you'd want to plan it over some years.