Who’s at the ‘back of the queue’ now, Obama?

Wasn’t it one of the ‘Remain’ campaign’s big arguments that leaving the EU would deprive us of the ‘clout’ we enjoy in negotiating foreign trade agreements? I seem to remember someone even warning us that in the event of Brexit we would go ‘to the back of the queue’ for a trade agreement with the US. So much for being at the front of the queue. Today, the French minister for foreign trade, Matthias Fekl, demanded an end to talks with the US over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It comes hot on the heels of claim yesterday by German deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel that TTIP has failed.

Yet again, the EU has proved hopeless in negotiating a trade deal with a major economy. Why is it that non-EU Switzerland can manage to negotiate deals with China and Japan but the EU has failed to do so? Clout is one thing; direction of purpose quite another.