In These New Times

From the neo-conservative point of view, in this case the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, already in 2014 the US attempt to negotiate a free trade deal with the EU was doomed to failure:

“Moreover, both in the TTIP negotiations and in general, EU supporters understand the game perfectly and are therefore able to discount British negotiating positions, which they can attack as reflecting only American desires. The very fact that the U.S. is relying on the U.K. to strengthen its hand inside the EU also points out that neither the EU itself nor the U.S. sees the EU as aligning easily with U.S. interests. Finally, and in a practical sense most damaging of all, the complete failure of the British government, even after the stunning results of the 2014 European elections, to block the selection of the Euro-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker—who stated that “when the going gets tough, you have to lie”—as president of the European Commission is a clear sign that the U.S. strategy of relying on the U.K. to carry its water in the EU will not work.[5]“

There is therefore little point in having the UK inside the EU. The alternative is a closer US-UK alignment with the UK outside the EU. This rounds off the neo-conservative agenda with Osborne in Washington reforgeing the special relationship and Farage on a roving commission to destabilise Europe.

Heritage Foundation

26th September, 2014

A referendum on British membership in the European Union is scheduled for 2017. EU supporters argue that exit from the EU would hurt Britain’s economy and, in particular, its ability to negotiate trading arrangements with the rest of the world—a responsibility currently exercised by the EU on behalf of all of its member states. But there is every reason to believe that Britain, the world’s sixth-largest economy, would be able to negotiate trade agreements independently. If Britain does decide to leave the EU, one of its central priorities should be to negotiate a modern free trade area (FTA), based on sovereignty and freedom, with the United States. This is a goal that the U.S., which should abandon its policy of supporting the EU at the expense of the sovereignty of its member nations, should also champion.

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