ASSESSMENTS

Trade Profile: The United Kingdom Strikes Out on Its Own

Oct 24, 2017 | 09:35 GMT

As an island, the United Kingdom has always experienced a degree of separation from the rest of the European Union.

(DAN KITWOOD/Getty Images)

Editor's Note

Global trade is changing. The kinds of multilateral agreements that characterized the postwar years have stalled over the past two decades, prompting countries and economic blocs to try to negotiate smaller deals with fewer partners. Nations and blocs have more leeway under this new model to negotiate the trade agreements that best suit their interests and to avoid those that don't. Now, more than ever, the future of international trade depends on a country or bloc's defensive interests, offensive interests and underlying factors of production. Our fortnightly Trade Profiles aim to break down these factors to facilitate an understanding of where global trade stands today and where it's headed.

In the 12th installment, we focus on the United Kingdom.

For most of the past two centuries, the United Kingdom has been a standard-bearer for free trade. Given its history, this is hardly surprising: The country was once home to the Industrial Revolution and commanded an empire that spanned a quarter of the globe. Armed with the military force to assert and protect its wide reach and competitive economy, the United Kingdom forcefully persuaded other countries to open up their markets to free trade, laying the groundwork for today's globalized system of imports and exports. Now, 70 years after World War II brought the British Empire to an end, the United Kingdom's mighty manufacturing industry and international clout are shadows of what they once were. Yet much of the promise that the British economy boasted in its heyday remains....

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