4 ms·

The UK still has a strong military, a particularly strong Navy, plus whatever remains of their portion of North Sea oil and gas. But they missed their window a

by grej 3y ago

The UK still has a strong military, a particularly strong Navy, plus whatever remains of their portion of North Sea oil and gas. But they missed their window after Brexit to strike the trade deals they needed, and now any trade deal they make will probably be under quite unfavorable terms.

theironhammer 3y ago
Re: no trade deals post Brexit. That was always going to be the case. Brexit fantasists thought they were going to recreate the empire with UK at its center. They also thought they could do a deal with USA. What does UK offer USA if they're not in Europe?
- rsynnott 3y ago
  It's hard to see, in any case, how any UK<>US trade deal (unless it was a colonial-style deal which greatly favoured the UK, or alternatively unless the UK was effectively subsumed _into_ the US; neither were ever on the cards) could possibly replace EU market access.
rchaud 3y ago
They didn't miss the opportunity, it was never offered. Trading partners like the US advised them to stay in the Bloc, which is the same as saying "there's no bilateral deal coming if you leave". Trade deals are multi-year projects and the terms you can get depends on how much leverage you have. Its noy the kind of thing you jump into after leaving a bigger trade bloc. The UK wasn't going to be able to negotiate anything without the bargaining chip of duty-free access to 500m customers.
rsynnott 3y ago
> But they missed their window after Brexit to strike the trade deals they needed It's unclear that there ever was such a window, given the _sort_ of Brexit they did. By far the most important trade goal for Britain would have been maintaining access to the European market on similar terms to previously (or at least similar terms to, say, Switzerland); everything else paled in comparison. But the form of Brexit chosen made that impossible.

4 ms·

The UK still has a strong military, a particularly strong Navy, plus whatever remains of their portion of North Sea oil and gas. But they missed their window a

by grej 3y ago

theironhammer 3y ago
Re: no trade deals post Brexit. That was always going to be the case. Brexit fantasists thought they were going to recreate the empire with UK at its center. They also thought they could do a deal with USA. What does UK offer USA if they're not in Europe?
- rsynnott 3y ago
  It's hard to see, in any case, how any UK<>US trade deal (unless it was a colonial-style deal which greatly favoured the UK, or alternatively unless the UK was effectively subsumed _into_ the US; neither were ever on the cards) could possibly replace EU market access.
rchaud 3y ago
They didn't miss the opportunity, it was never offered. Trading partners like the US advised them to stay in the Bloc, which is the same as saying "there's no bilateral deal coming if you leave". Trade deals are multi-year projects and the terms you can get depends on how much leverage you have. Its noy the kind of thing you jump into after leaving a bigger trade bloc. The UK wasn't going to be able to negotiate anything without the bargaining chip of duty-free access to 500m customers.
rsynnott 3y ago
> But they missed their window after Brexit to strike the trade deals they needed It's unclear that there ever was such a window, given the _sort_ of Brexit they did. By far the most important trade goal for Britain would have been maintaining access to the European market on similar terms to previously (or at least similar terms to, say, Switzerland); everything else paled in comparison. But the form of Brexit chosen made that impossible.