Lloyd Barton, head of global trade services at the global forecasting consultancy Oxford Economics. “I would stress that the U.K. services industry has benefited from being part of the single market in the EU.”

Business and financial services need to be front and center in Brexit talks this week, experts contend. They represent a large proportion of U.K. exports that stands to suffer under the threat of a no-deal Brexit and rhetoric around Britain playing by its own rules.

The U.K. has said it’s going to try and maintain access for services sectors to the EU, which gobbles up 40 percent of Britain’s services exports. A day-long session during Brexit talks tomorrow is devoted to discussing trade in services https://business.westernunion.com/en-sg/about/media/post/global-trade-in-services-to-increase-by-2trn-over-next-five-years-according-to-new-report-by-western-union-and-oxford-economics

“At the same time, the U.K. is also saying that it won’t be bound to the EU’s regulatory practices,” Baron said. “That implies that if there’s no mutual recognition [of regulation], then that’s going to form a barrier to services providers trying to access the single market.”

As recently as last month, Boris Johnson told LBC radio an “Australia-style” deal with the EU, which has limited access for services, is a “very good option” for the U.K.

Even a Canada style deal doesn’t provide nearly the access that being part of the single market does. “When you look at the detail for professional and business services, the level of market access is still falling well short of that for member states within the EU,” said Baron.

Recent research from the OECD shows “impediments for service suppliers outside the single market were nearly four times as high,” said Baron. Britain will be one of them after Brexit.

“... a no-deal Brexit at the end of this year is probably the single greatest risk for services exporters,” said Baron. “The U.K. will just struggle to make up the shortfall in services trade that’s going to occur as a result.”