According to academics from the London School of Economics and other universities, Britain’s exit from the European Union is responsible for nearly a third ($316) of the rise in family food expenses since 2019.

Britain has been fighting inflation for more than a year, which has been exacerbated by food costs, which have increased by more than 19% in the past year, the greatest pace of growth since 1977.

Even while London and Brussels have a deal allowing for mostly tariff-free trade in products, paperwork-based export and import restrictions, sometimes known as non-tariff barriers, have increased prices and caused delays.

In a study conducted by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), prices of foods imported from the European Union were compared to those of foods from other regions.

Before Brexit, these products’ pricing trends were similar, but following Brexit, there was a relative price increase for those that were more susceptible to imports from the EU, and that tendency has maintained into 2023, according to the report.

According to the research, between January 2022 and March 2023, the cost of food items that were affected by Brexit rose by almost 3.5 percentage points more than those that were not.

They calculated the cost of Brexit to UK households at 6.95 billion pounds ($8.77 billion), or 250 pounds per household, after taking into account the effect on food prices from December 2019, right before Britain formally left the EU.

It estimated an almost 25% increase in UK food costs between December 2019 and March 2023.

“Our analysis suggests that, in the absence of Brexit, this figure would be 8 percentage points (30%) lower,” the CEP said.

Since January 2021, when Britain’s trade and cooperation (TCA) agreement with the EU began, products with substantial non-tariff barriers, such as meat and cheese imported from the EU, have experienced price hikes that are around 10 percentage points higher than those experienced by comparable products that were not subject to Brexit.

The spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week rejected criticism of how Brexit had been carried out by major eurosceptic lawmakers and asserted that Britain’s exit from the European Union had not been a failure.

Official data show that in October, overall consumer price inflation in the United Kingdom reached a more than 40-year high of 11.1%. In April, it had slowed to 8.7%.

(Adapted from ThePrint.in)