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Again, it's not that we don't have access to those other markets in the EU, it's that the terms are set by the EU as a bloc. Now, it'll be up to the UK to nego

Again, it's not that we don't have access to those other markets in the EU, it's that the terms are set by the EU as a bloc. Now, it'll be up to the UK to negotiate the specific terms with those markets, while being able to access free trade with the single market. Absolutely agree it's absurd that the deal comes so late with basically 0 time to really prepare, but negotiations between blocs, countries and even small domestic businesses always go right down to the wire, just a human thing.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
None of which answers the question - which significant new markets exist for UK goods and services? Unless you count tax evasion and money laundering - something the UK was doing okay at already - there simply aren't any. There is no promised land here, no sunlit uplands, no glorious future as an independent trading nation. In reality the UK has just pulled the rug out from under its most productive service sector and cut out the heart of its tax base. And it doesn't have the skills or the culture to develop new service markets, because it's thinking like a 19th century imperial power running a 19th century economy, not like an interconnected smaller power with significant unique skills and talents in a mixed 21st century economy. When you sell a plane or a computer or a tractor to a foreign country you don't just sell an item that needs to be shipped. You also sell training, spares, continuing support, consultancy. and business development. These were relatively friction-free when freedom of movement was a thing. Now they're much harder, because they rely on employees visiting customers and possibly staying with them for long periods - which can't be done with paperwork and restrictions. This "deal" makes all of this much harder for EU trade, and does nothing at all to make it easier in Rest of World. And all of this held up for weeks by arguments about fish, which are barely a rounding error in GDP terms.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago

None of which answers the question - which significant new markets exist for UK goods and services? Unless you count tax evasion and money laundering - something the UK was doing okay at already - there simply aren't any. There is no promised land here, no sunlit uplands, no glorious future as an independent trading nation. In reality the UK has just pulled the rug out from under its most productive service sector and cut out the heart of its tax base. And it doesn't have the skills or the culture to develop new service markets, because it's thinking like a 19th century imperial power running a 19th century economy, not like an interconnected smaller power with significant unique skills and talents in a mixed 21st century economy. When you sell a plane or a computer or a tractor to a foreign country you don't just sell an item that needs to be shipped. You also sell training, spares, continuing support, consultancy. and business development. These were relatively friction-free when freedom of movement was a thing. Now they're much harder, because they rely on employees visiting customers and possibly staying with them for long periods - which can't be done with paperwork and restrictions. This "deal" makes all of this much harder for EU trade, and does nothing at all to make it easier in Rest of World. And all of this held up for weeks by arguments about fish, which are barely a rounding error in GDP terms.