This would be very harmful for the world economy, not to mention economic areas like Texas or Finland. [SLIDE 3] Trade barriers have a negative impact on investments and purchases of durable goods, in particular. They explain part of the recent stagnation in the volume of global trade. Pervasive uncertainty has hit its growth, which has fallen from +4-5% evento below zero.
Secondly, the many twists and turns of Brexit have increased uncertainty about under what terms the EU will trade with the UK in the future. This has already affected euro area trade with the UK. If a so-called hard Brexit materializes, it would certainly have a negative effect on euro area growth.