Amid all the noise about Brexit, it seems David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, wants the UK to focus on future trade deals, in particular with the US, even if this means a looser trade relationship with Europe.
He argues that the present exit terms as negotiated by Theresa May preclude a deal with the US, even though the US wanted one. “We have to have a Canada+++ deal to allow us to have a free trade deal with America,” he tweeted on Friday.
First, America as a single country is already our biggest export market. We sold over £100bn of goods and services to the US last year, more than what we sold to Germany and France put together. So it is perfectly possible to have an extremely successful trading relationship with a country without a specific trade deal with it. True, trade with the US might expand faster if there were an enhanced trading agreement; indeed there would be little point in having one if it didn’t. But it is not essential.