With Brexit triggered, Britain and EU make leap into the unknown

ON Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May signed the letter invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, thus triggering the formal process of Britain's exit from the European Union (EU).

For both Britain and the EU, this will be a leap into the unknown - no EU member has exited the bloc before. It will also mean marathon negotiations, lasting at least two years, on a range of issues, major and minor, economic, political and social, whose outcome is uncertain. On the eve of these negotiations, expected to begin in May, we have only the haziest idea of the respective parties' negotiating positions. In her most substantive "Brexit" speech thus far, delivered in January, Mrs May had said that Britain favoured what has come to be called a "hard Brexit".

It would not seek partial or associate membership of the EU, nor the halfway-house model adopted by some other non-members. It would instead seek a "new and equal partnership" with the "freest possible trade". For their part, EU officials have made clear that Britain would not be allowed to "cherry-pick" - for example, by securing a free-trade deal together with curbs on EU immigration.