It’s a good thing for Boris Johnson that most Britons won’t be thinking about Brexit when they vote in local elections on Thursday. While many who backed Britain’s departure from the European Union will still credit the prime minister, the costs of the separation are adding to economic pressures they’re now facing.
It’s too early to examine the full impact of the deal that set out the new U.K.-EU trade relationship some 16 months ago. But as the forces of globalization begin working in reverse, the U.K.’s trade picture offers a real-world laboratory for the impact of newly erected trade barriers and economic decoupling.