Brexit changes UK's world role

UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox on Thursday concluded a three-day day trip to Beijing and Shenzhen to boost bilateral economic ties. The visit, which comes hot on the heels of last month's UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue summit, underlines the emphasis that London is putting on consolidating ties with key non-EU nations with "Brexit" on the horizon.

With the coming exit of the EU, scheduled for 2019, Prime Minister Theresa May has asserted that she wants to rediscover the UK's heritage "as a great global trading nation". This is not just with China but also includes former parts of the British Empire that are now members of the Commonwealth such as India; plus other key emerging markets such as the Gulf Cooperation Council states in the Middle East; and key industrialised countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States.

To this end, Mr Fox has confirmed that he is already discussing - informally - new post-Brexit UK trade deals with at least a dozen countries. And he even hinted, extraordinarily, during his China trip this week that London might try to seek membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the proposed 11-member trade and investment deal with Asia-Pacific countries including Japan, Singapore, Canada and Mexico.