New Judge, I respect your legal opinions, and also your Leave whatever the consequences attitude, but when it comes to trade I'm not sure that you have a clue.
> Germany alone accounts for more than £25bn of that surplus. If you really think that German businesses will see that trade jeopardised
What has happened with us inside the EU is not a reliable indicator of what will happen once we're outside.
For a start, it is not German business that is doing the negotiating ... it is Tusk, Juncker, Verhofstadt and Barnier, who have already demonstrated that they value ideology over trade - a bit like yourself, NJ, but with a different ideology!
But even if we do consider trade ... suppose that the cost of trade between the EU and UK was increased equally in both directions. What would the outcome be?
People and businesses in the EU would have to find an alternative supplier elsewhere in the EU in order to remove that cost of trade. Could they? Probably, yes. There is not much that the UK produces that can't be produced elsewhere in the EU. So UK exports to the EU would decrease, a relatively large amount.
Businesses in the UK would have to find an alternative supplier elsewhere in the UK in order to remove that cost of trade. Could they? Probably not, no. There are lots of things produced in the EU that aren't currently produced in the UK. So UK imports from the EU will decrease, but relatively little. We may of couse choose to import from elsewhere, e.g. the USA, which will harm Europe as well as us. But still, we're harmed.
There are many good grounds for arguing against remaining in the EU, but trade is not one of them.
We can pray for a fantastic trade deal, equivalent to what we already
have, but nothing that has happened so far holds out much hope that this will happen. Quite the opposite in fact.