Email of the day 1
Comment of the Day

June 30 2016

Commentary by David Fuller

Email of the day 1

On Israel & Turkey, the UK & EU, from Israel:

Dear David, Yesterday [27th] Israel and Turkey signed an agreement to end their 6 year confrontation and diplomatic rupture. During that period trade between the two countries has tripled from 2 billion dollars a year to 6 billion. This shows that the UK, or what remains of it after Brexit, can continue to trade in a mutually beneficial way with the rest of the EU after last week's referendum vote.

David Fuller's view

That is an interesting perspective.  I do not know the details of Israel’s trade with Turkey but if you produce useful products and services, especially in the high-tech field as Israel certainly does, many countries will want to trade with you. 

I hope you are right about the UK and EU but I think negotiations will be difficult, with lots of brinkmanship. EU negotiators from Germany and France may feel spurned and wish to hurt the UK and help themselves by syphoning away lucrative financial business from the City. Therefore “passporting”, important for the UK financial industry, may be difficult to gain.  However, I think the EU faces more regional fires, metaphorically speaking, so the ticking clock may actually strengthen the UK’s hand.  

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