The government’s obstinate refusal to treat the EU as a valued trading partner is making Britain poorer
The agreement reached with Australia this week is celebrated by the UK government as a landmark trade deal – the first that isn’t a rollover of old European Union membership terms. But that honour surely belongs to a treaty that was signed by Boris Johnson in December 2020. It is the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) covering the exchange of goods between Britain and 27 other nations.
But those nations constitute the European single market, which Mr Johnson does not appear to count as a valuable trading partner, despite its proximity.
