Just when you might have thought that our departure from the EU was finally dealt with it turns out another cliff edge is looming. We have only a year to agree a trade deal with the rest of Europe. Already there are scare stories about how we may crash out without one, and plenty of controversy about what kind of concessions we will have to make to Brussels. By the time the first tulips are flowering in the spring, Project Fear will be back up and running again. But hold on. Before we start negotiating we should ask ourselves a bigger question. Do we really want a trade deal with the EU? The answer might well be that we don’t.
Sure, of course we’d want a deal if it didn’t come with conditions attached. It would be crazy to say no. In a perfect world, we would be happy to offer the EU zero tariff access to our market in return for zero tariff access to theirs.
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