EU's attitude of "don't let the door..." is just their negotiation tactics. Deep down they know they have just as much to lose as UK when this Brexit is f***ed up but to get the better deal, this is what you do. You play hard ball hoping the other person would cave in. Uh no, that's NOT going to happen when you are dealing with UK. LOL If they are so afraid of this "burning house" problem, then maybe they should finally have the courage to deal in good faith with UK on this Brexit? You never win when you try to screw somebody, ever. The earlier EU realizes this the better.
That's a very Trumpian take on both the respective negotiating positions and the concepts of negotiation. Will probably work out as well for the UK as it's worked out for him.
That's not a Trumpian take; that's how ALL negotiations are played out. Trump just opened his mouth and said it out loud. I still believe in negotiating in good faith for mutual benefits though but when the other side is being an a$$ like EU, that's what you do.
You can say as well: You play hard ball hoping the other person would cave in. Uh no, that's NOT going to happen when you are dealing with EU. LOL If they are so afraid of this "burning house" problem, then maybe they should finally have the courage to deal in good faith with EUK on this Brexit? You never win when you try to screw somebody, ever. The earlier UK realizes this the better. In negociations both parties always think the other party has to be more reasonable. Like a buyer who always thinks he pays too much, while at the same time the seller thinks he does not get enough.
Actually no, successful negotiations in a situation where you will have repeated negotiations with the same party over time most certainly do not proceed in that fashion. Note the key focus on the words successful and repeated. Certainly you can burn your own house down to scare your neighbors into mowing their lawn. If you're into pyrrhic victories you will have achieved exactly that. And it will work exactly once. You're obviously very invested in this, but take a step back and a deep breath and you'll see that while it is and has been the biggest news in the U.K. for months, it's more like the thing where you can't stop yourself from being interested in a car wreck for those in the EU. To think that more than a tiny fraction of the EU gives a flying f*%k about the UK leaving is to have either a significant loss of perspective or a highly inflated sense of self-worth. Now that they're acting in a way that's going to inconvenience those around them through sheer recklessness and idiocy, the EU is taking reasonable steps to limit that damage just like you would if your neighbor was burning down their house. But you're simply deluding yourself if you seriously think the UK is in any kind of negotiating position, or ever has been or will be, with the EU, and deluding yourself even more if you think the current cluster that is UK politics is some kind of master negotiating technique. Seriously, perspective is huge on this one and anyone who has it is just shaking their head at those of you in once Great, Britain who think you get to "play hardball" with anyone. The UK is great, I've spent months there over the years and love the place and the people, if not the weather. I also love Canada and would but shaking my head just the same if they tried to "play hardball" with the U.S. leaving NAFTA, especially with the obviously unworkable unguarded border you seem to insist on.
UK is NOT Canada who's just a resource economy that its sole source of income is selling stuff dug from the ground. Against the most powerful economy that basically sells everything that we depend on to live and can kill you with a push of a button like USA, of course Canada is not in any position to bargain, nobody is. I am not saying UK is doing this as some kind of "master negotiating tactic"; it's more like a natural reaction to something that is just ridiculously unreasonable. Nobody in any state of sane mind would ever accept the s*** that EU just handed to UK. EU should've really expected this.
What you're missing is that nobody in any state of sane mind in the EU would accept the UK "demanding" anything! Again, the Brexiters flatter themselves with their sense of importance to the EU. The UK in fact has an almost identical GDP to Canada and Canada actually exports/imports far more to the U.S. (roughly $250B/$200B respectively) than the UK does to the EU (roughly $150B/$200B), so the analogy is very apt. That those exports are natural resources are irrelevant, as is some crazy idea that the U.S. would ever threaten to "kill Canada with the push of a button". What is just as relevant is that while the U.S. likes Canada and it's exports and imports, benefits from the relationship, and would like it to continue, if they got a wild hair up their ass and decided to "play hardball" with the U.S. the U.S. would laugh at them just like the EU is doing to the UK and for exactly the same reason and if they persisted start to get pissed at them. The UK is in fact in no position to bargain or make demands of any kind with the EU, and all they're accomplishing is pissing the EU off at this point. Everyone can clearly see that except the Brexiters.
You got it backwards. As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, it's not whoever who exports more that's more important. It's the opposite. It's whoever *imports* more from the other party that actually holds the bargaining power because the exporting country would "need" the importing country more. UK exported actually not $150B but $207B USD to EU last year but UK imported from EU $341B pounds or $264B USD so it's EU that needs UK more because UK's spending more buying EU's goods & services than EU's spending to buy UK's goods & services. And in US-Canada relationship, it's the same thing, it's US importing more from Canada than Canada importing from US. So following this logic, if it was Canada who catered more to US in the former NAFTA talks because Canada needed US more, then in this Brexit talks, EU would need UK more than the other way around and it's EU who would have to cater to UK more. Worst comes to worst, if EU decides to shut UK completely out of its "single market" and UK does the same to EU, EU would stand to lose more. And on top of that, UK was contributing more money to EU the entire time that it was part of EU. It's importing more from EU AND paying money to EU to keep it alive and now EU wants to play hard ball with UK?? Seriously??? LOL Two words for EU: Good Riddance!!
That completely missed my point that the UK is a gnat on the ass of Europe from their perspective, the amount if imbalance in an insignificant amount of trade with plenty of substitutes is irrelevant. You still seem to be confused about who is the one leaving here. You somehow seem to think that specifically because you see the EU as a "good riddance" they should acquiesce to your demands, or even give you the time of day for that matter. While Brexiter's feelings about the matter are important inside the UK, the EU could give fuck all about them, and certainly aren't going to give you concessions based on the fact that you all don't want to play in the sandbox anymore!
UK GDP (2017): 2.67 Trillion USD Canada GDP (2017): 1.65 Trillion USD UK 62% more than Canada. You're fast losing credibility.