To listen to the more ideological voices in the hard Brexit camp, Britain’s trade deficit is because the European Union has manacled the nation’s freebooting entrepreneurs to the shore and scuttled their ships. Break free of the EU and the dormant spirits of the old East India Company will awaken for Britain to reclaim its rightful place on the sea routes. All we need is to ditch the single market and customs union, then off we go. German trade has prospered from within the customs union and while shackled to single market regulations. German banks lent to Mediterranean member states, which used the funds to buy German goods.…

Source: The Times February 26, 2018 17:03 UTC