But back on topic .... From the Irish Times , accredited to the Financial Times .. What should be of concern is that during this time, the UK was still within the EU ,
"Brexit shrank UK services exports by more than £110 billion (€128 billion) over a four-year period, new research shows, highlighting the far-reaching trade implications of Britain’s decision to break away from the European Union.
Experts at Aston University in Birmingham found that UK services exports from 2016 to 2019 were cumulatively £113 billion lower than they would have been had the UK not voted to quit the EU in June 2016.
The researchers calculated the figure by projecting how industries from IT and finance to business services would have grown if they had continued on their previous paths, and compared that with how they had actually progressed since the vote for Brexit. The gap was £113 billion.
“What we find raises serious concerns about the damage to the UK’s services trade position and the likely spillovers to the economy and jobs related to the services sectors,” said Jun Du, professor of economics at Aston Business School.
The findings point to the underlying challenges UK services exporters will face in maintaining trade with the EU after the conclusion of the UK’s post-Brexit deal with Brussels.
Agreement provisions
The agreement contains minimal provisions on financial and professional services – industries that are crucial to Britain’s economy. In 2019 the UK ran an £18 billion surplus in services trade with the EU, against a deficit of £97 billion in goods.
Data for 2020 were not included in the Aston study because the pandemic has distorted economies so greatly. Du told the Financial Times that the trend of services companies moving away from the UK could accelerate as the pandemic’s influence fades.
“The Covid period created difficulties in moving business and individuals [which] slowed down this relocation process . . . it will now pick up, and get worse as businesses see that there is not much going on in UK-EU negotiations. I think this is only the beginning,” she said.