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One of the more creative attempts to solve this problem was published this week by the redoubtable Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform. In Big Sam’s proposal, the CBT would be linked to the costs of buying carbon permits under the EU’s emissions trading scheme. A foreign exporter to the EU would have to pay a border tax equivalent to the cost of buying emissions permits to produce the same good inside the Single Market.

Boris Johnson may be planning to bypass a law blocking a no-deal Brexit by issuing an order to suspend it until after the scheduled date of Britain’s EU withdrawal on 31 October, former prime minister Sir John Major has warned.The order could be passed by ministers acting in the Privy Council without the involvement of parliament or the Queen, said Sir John, who denounced the tactic as “a piece of political chicanery that no one should ever forgive or forget”.

“[The court ruling] doesn’t make a big impact on the outcome of Brexit in the long run," Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think tank, said. "What matters most is whether Boris can get a deal with the EU27."

After his chastening defeat in the Supreme Court, Johnson may think twice about trying to defy the law a second time by simply refusing to abide by the Benn Act, said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think tank.

Noah Gordon at the Centre for European Reform writes persuasively on why EU leaders should ramp up their 2030 carbon emissions target from a 40 per cent reduction on the 1990 level to closer to 60 per cent. 

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, has warned the threat of future regulatory divergence between Britain and the EU could complicate the immediate task of brokering a Brexit deal, including arrangements to avoid the return to hard Irish border.“Johnson says he wants a minimal, Canada-style free trade agreement, with pronounced regulatory divergence from the 27 [other EU member states],” Mr Grant wrote.“That would increase the regulatory gap between Ireland and the UK, thus making the EU even keener to maintain some sort of . . . way of avoiding the need for controls on or near the Irish border.”

“This is economic madness and at the same time, expected. The balanced budget has such a high political significance that no one dares to go against it. Not even for the climate, at a time of negative interest rates,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, a think tank.