EU trade negotiations are unwieldy, slow affairs that take an average of seven years and must factor in all of the varying concerns and cultures of all 28 member states.
The European Commission failed to finish US trade talks before president Trump took over, in part because of disagreements over financial services and the ironing-out of all those national difficulties.
Even when a deal is struck, they are subject to approval by all the parliaments of the 28. The Canada trade deal was nearly scuttled by the resistance of the Walloon regional parliament in the French-speaking region of Belgium.
Recent EU trade policy are thanks in part to Brexit.
Since the Brexit vote, and the election of a protectionist Mr Trump, the EU has adopted a more pragmatic rather than absolutist approach and zeroed in on getting deals, even if they aren’t the best possible, done.
EU officials believe, as was clear with the recent trade agreement with Japan, that each deal struck bolsters the international rules for trade at a time when they are being challenged by Mr Trump.
When Britain does leave the EU and pursues its own independent trade policy it will need those rules to be in firm fettle.
Britain alone sacrifices the negotiating heft of a bloc of hundreds of millions of customers but should be more nimble and fast moving than the EU.
As with much in Brexit, it is a question of trade-offs.
Why doesn't Starmer hold another referendum?
