Brexit

[Bofferbrauer2]

RolStoppable said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

To elaborate on this, just take a look onto this picture:

(map)

Only the countries in gray are not part of a trade bloc, and even then, Western Sahara is technically part of Morocco.

As you can see, the only countries without the trade blocs are either totally dependent on their neighbors anyway (Mongolia), are under severe sanctions (Iran, North Korea), have no stable government (Somalia), too new (South Sudan), or either have not much to trade for or are too insignificant so they are left alone (what's left). UK will join the gray area when they left the EU and have to deal with those colored blocs for the most part, which united are generally much bigger than the UK and can therefor set the terms of a trade deal.

I think the most likely result is that the UK will be able to get arrangements similar to Switzerland and Norway who are wealthy states without being EU members.

The bigger question mark is if the UK will remain the UK or if Scotland breaks free.

Keep in mind that a lot of those agreements that Switzerland and Norway have are from their EFTA Membership, and especially from a time where the EFTA was much bigger than it is today. However, the UK could rejoin the EFTA (UK was part of the EFTA before joining the EU, as did Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Finland), as while they do have a trade policy and joint agreements, the EFTA also allows member states to have separate bilateral agreements with other countries/trade blocs.