This being the basic problem with international negotiations

Asked whether the EU would use its power to switch off the City’s ability to serve European clients to gain leverage in the coming negotiations with Britain, Plenković said: “I wouldn’t go into the vocabulary of weapons but what I have learned in international and European negotiations [is] that all arguments and considerations are treated as political.”

The aim here is to try and come to the correct economic decision. Yet the criteria to be used are the political ones.

We’re most unlikely to get to the right answer therefore.

This always being the problem with all of these international negotiations. It’s the politicians sitting around the tables discussing what would be good for politicians. With trade this problem is especially stark as the correct answer is that politics should play no part in why may trade what with whom.

But that’s the way it’s done and is the reason why international trade doesn’t boost our lifestyle as much as it should - political interference in who may trade what with whom.