Simon Jenkins had an article in The Guardian HERE last week about the importance of trade to the UK and arguing for us to remain in EFTA or the EEA. It's title though is: We can leave the EU, but not Europe. Isolation is no longer splendid. He has never believed in political integration and is no lover of the EU. However, I tend to think he is wrong.
After Brexit and within a few years when the new accession countries join the EU we will be unique in Europe. We will be the only nation not part off the EU, EFTA, the EEA or the customs union. This area will stretch from Iceland in the West to Turkey in the East. Think about the regulatory gravity such a bloc would have. Whether we like it or not we will find ourselves having to comply with many new EU regulations if we want to trade with minimum friction. Isolation is not really an option.
We could of course choose to go our own way and ignore Europe but we would surely damage ourselves even more than we are already planning to.
Europe is the richest, safest market in the world and probably the most advanced. China may get bigger but it won't be richer for a very long time, if ever and doing business there is fraught with legal obstacles. As Ken Clarke said recently: when did you last hear of a Chinese company losing a legal case in a Chinese court? We are not the British Empire any more and will not be able to put any pressure on China or India or the USA.
Looked at like this I think it is obvious our trade interests are best served by remaining in the customs union and the single market. And if this is the conclusion, as it seems to be for Simon Jenkins, we might as well stay in the EU and at least have our voice heard rather than sitting outside with our ears pressed to the wall.
