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If MPs are going to have another go through indicative votes to set a Brexit path it would be useful if MPs actually understood the implications of different choices and what any choice actually means.
A Customs Union does not deal with regulatory obstacles to trade and doesn’t offer any market access to services. There are a huge number of free trade agreements and a tiny number of customs unions.
A Single Market entails the four freedoms including services but also movement of workers as a legal right. Restrictions on free movement are restrictions on a fundamental freedom and so very narrowly defined.
Membership of EFTA and access to the Single Market via EEA Agreement would not include a customs union. It would allow greater autonomy for an independent trade policy but then entail rules of origin and frontier checks as goods move into the EU customs union.
A No Deal Brexit would lead to trade on WTO terms and imposition of tariffs. Precisely because this is unattractive we get the large number of free trade agreement between major economies. As a result even WTO members don’t trade on default rules of WTO but based on agreements.
Combining a customs union and a Single Market would avoid hard border in Ireland. It would be the best economic option for U.K. . But it’s what U.K. already has as a Member State. If it’s what we want, why leave?
