[addicted]

Exactly. The EU just needs to sit on their hands for 2 years, and that will mean an automatic tariff of 9% on 44% of British exports.

Although with the plummeting pound British stuff might still manage to be as cheap. Only now 4.5% of British exports will be going into European hands instead of British.

[thetmkay]

What about German and French imports?

[addicted]

Will also plummet. Imports will be more expensive as the pound drops (already dropped more than any other day in its history against the $).

This is a lose-lose. Everyone suffers. Trade with the UK will go down, and both the EU and the UK will be poorer.

Difference is that the EU has 10 times the population of the UK. And the EU has political disincentives to keep this breakup civil.