> Shear volume is a big part of why Communist China has > better trade deals with the US than Communist Cuba, I > wouldn't discount the importance of volume i

> Shear volume is a big part of why Communist China has > better trade deals with the US than Communist Cuba, I > wouldn't discount the importance of volume in trade > negotiations. That's not entirely true, it also has somewhat to do with their relaxed policy on human rights and their status in the WTO. Now that the US is looking to balance the books, China's economy has taken quite a serious hit. That said, the UK is also part of a much older and relatively large trading group - the Commonwealth. > Very few of the UK’s potential trade partners are > superpowers where the actors necessary to negotiate and > ratify a trade deal have consensus around destabilizing > the EU as a goal. What you hear publicly and what goes on behind closed doors, are too very different things. I highly suspect that the US also has a vested interest in breaking up the EU, after all, it's the EU which is putting pressure on its booming tech industry for example. I also suspect that there are multiple other powers poised to take advantage of destabilization of the EU. I also further suspect the EU has realized this threat, which is why the UK must help safeguard the EU-based banks for a Brexit deal. > With a generous definition of “superpower”, you have China > and Russia and that's it. The term "superpower" is not easily defined at the best of times, granted.