Coalition governments anyone?

[Borin' Baggie]

Not really. The EU will pursue strong arm arrangements with the developing world where it suits the EU agenda - essentially the protection of German manufacturing and French agriculture. Everything else can go hang.

If that were true, the EU's simple mean tariffs wouldn't be low, they wouldn't have comprehensive trade agreements with Canada, Japan or South Korea, they would be shadowing the US on silicon trade strategy and the EBA wouldn't exist. Need I mention internally the situation with Dutch agriculture, or Northern Italian manufacturing?

The EU is the most liberal and pro-trade economic bloc on Earth. The numbers and scope of trade agreements back that up.

[Protheroe]

Where it suits the EU is the point you’ve been missing for 7 years. If the EU was truly liberal they’d have offered the UK terms far better than they did. They’re not, so they didn’t.

[Borin' Baggie]

We would have had better terms had we decided to stay close to the EU to enable minimal red tape. But we didn't want that. Even then we've ended up with tariff free and quota free trade with the EU and part of the UK even has close to zero red tape.

Even basic shit like music artists touring where they literally offered something and we said no thanks. You cannot have your cake and eat it.