Outsiders — especially anti-Brexit campaigners on the one hand, and Americans who wanted to compare the Brexit campaign to Donald Trump’s candidacy on the other — were wedded to the idea that Brexit was about cutting off Britain from Europe.
In fact, if you listened to the most coherent and smartest Brexit campaigners (like our own columnist, MEP Daniel Hannan), what you heard was the complaint that the EU was shackling Britain inside a protectionist trade prison:
Hannan notes that the U.K. gave up a more diverse world market, and its right to speak on its own behalf at the World Trade Organization, in order to enter a trade bloc of similar industrialized nations. So this really shouldn’t be as surprising as it seems many are taking it:
Trying to reassure bankers and multinational companies that Britain will be open for business even as it plans a sharp break with the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May braved the elitist chill of the World Economic Forum on Thursday to argue that Britain is committed to free trade and globalization.
Her defense of free trade was slightly jarring coming after Britain’s decision to quit the largest free-trade grouping on earth, the European Union, judging that control over immigration and complete sovereignty mattered more.
The Times account gets down to the reality a few paragraphs later:
Britain wants to negotiate trade deals with “old friends” and “new allies,” she said, adding that tentative discussions have begun with Australia, India and New Zealand, and that China, Brazil and the Persian Gulf states have expressed interest in striking trade deals.
Britain is especially keen to do a deal with Washington, and Mr. Trump has said he is eager to start.
While part of the EU, the United Kingdom has been unable to sign its own free-trade agreements even with British Commonwealth nations, let alone other major world economies like China. Rather, it is at the mercy of the loudest protectionist voices in Brussels, who were interested in preventing competition with their domestic industries. As Hannan complained during the Brexit campaign, something as simple as a deal with a small country like Canada could end up in limbo because of objections from Romanian textile manufacturers.
The European Union has inhibited British free trade. Brexit, and subsequent deals with major economies like the United States and China (among others) could well liberate it. And the U.S., assuming President-elect Trump is sincere about his interest in a deal with Britain, could be one of the first to benefit.
