Con Couglin, writing in The Telegraph (HERE) thinks we can fly to new heights as a global trading power after we Brexit. He doesn't say what has kept us grounded until now but I assume he thinks it's EU regulations and the prospect of new trade deals.
He mentions Australia and India and says, "the world post-Brexit clearly offers Britain a glittering array of new commercial and business opportunities". This comes just before the Japanese government's letter (HERE) and Obama's warning that the UK will still be at the back of the queue. Mr Coughlin thinks swapping unlimited tariff free access with the world's biggest, richest and closest market for a trade deal with Australia, 20 million people and 12,000 miles away is a good think. Amazing. Prosper like never before.
That kind of wishful thinking will only get us into trouble.
Japan has 1000 companies located in Britain employing 140,000 people. They are a "global trading power". I wonder what the equivalent numbers are of British companies in Japan? Japan is twice our size so we should have 2000 companies employing about 280,000 people - but I bet it's nothing like that.
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