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> I don't understand why the UK leaving the EU would matter. If a country pisses off the EU, for example by applying sanctions to one of its member states, the
by PontifexMinimus 6y ago
> I don't understand why the UK leaving the EU would matter.
If a country pisses off the EU, for example by applying sanctions to one of its member states, the EU can reply "fine, we won't trade with you". This is a credible threat because the EU has a large share of the world economy.
The UK could also threaten to not trade with a country, but this is a much smaller threat as the UK is a much smaller part of the world economy.
In geopolitics, size matters: https://pontifex.substack.com/p/why-scotland-should-leave-the-uk https://pontifex.substack.com/p/why-scotland-should-leave-th...
- ipaddr 5y agoChina has a bigger market than the EU. Does China have more power? I would say China has less influence. Marketsize matters but it is only one of many factors. Remember the British Commonwealth is quite large with Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, etc. These create special relationships that don't exist with the EU. Banning all UK entities, means cutting off all of the Hong Kong relationships, many commonwealth relationships, anglo countries. As important as the EU relationship is. The Anglo alliance of countries holds the true power and it has been this way since WWII.