Could e-commerce be excluded from Brexit negotiations and be left to trade as before? According to Metapack this could well be the case. The company has released a white paper that outlines the options for European e-commerce in the wake of last week’s referendum where the people of the UK voted to leave Europe.

Metapack’s report suggests that European e-commerce “can continue to flourish and escape burdensome red tape” – despite the leaving the EU.

Patrick Wall, CEO at MetaPack, commented, “At first glance it might be thought that cross border eCommerce is at the mercy of forthcoming complex trade negotiations, but this need not be the case,” he continued. “Moving forward we need to work together collectively to protect consumers’ access to an open European eCommerce market. At MetaPack we are fully committed to ensuring that this happens.”

The white paper by Metapack is called “UK exit from the European Union and potential developments for e-commerce”, explores the various trading models that are being considered by both sides of the split. Models being considered include those of Norway, Turkey and Swiss, as well as the extreme but not completely unlikely WTO approach.

The white paper concluded, “Following the sensible precedent of agreements around the world, using a high ‘de minimis’, the majority of eCommerce could simply be exempt from the more complex duty requirements.”

Should this be the case, the UK’s economy may well dodge a very big bullet as cross border e-commerce trade is worth a lot of money to exporters here. This might even happen if the EU decides to treat us in such a way that other potential leavers may be discouraged from their own Brexit…

The white paper can be downloaded from http://go.metapack.com/brexit