Dave Plowman (News) wrote
Mark Allread wrote

But it wouldn't be a *free* trade deal, we'd have to re-negotiate those,

and that is where I was told I was wrong (along with others) and that
the UK would *not* need to re-negotiate any trade deals. Reference was
made to India as an example but what I have seen clearly states that we
have no current trade deal with India.

Of course it doesn't *have* to negotiate any trade deals.
Most countries do allow trade with others.

In fact there are none that don’t.

It's the terms of that trade which need a deal.

Nope, if there is no bilateral trade agreement, trade is done
under the WTO rules. That is the whole point of the WTO.

For example, India might put a tarrif on all imports
from countries where it hasn't got a deal. Say 25%.

No country that matters does that.

Obviously they'd be happy to *sell* to the UK tarrif free.

But this would put the UK at a trade disadvantage over another
country that had a deal with India to sell to them tarrif free.

Such trade deals tend to take ages to negotiate. Some
ongoing for many many years. Even more so between
a large country like India and a small one like the UK.

It isnt the size of the country that matters with that.

A large country is going to be keener
to make a deal with another large one.

It’s the size of the economy that matters and
clearly there isnt any trade agreement between
the EU and China or the EU and the US either
and trade works fine anyway.