Christopher Pyne: Britain and the EU might get into a competition to see who can outmanoeuvre the other

With Britain’s unhappy marriage to Europe over at last, both will be looking to impress other partners, writes Christopher Pyne.

Ever since the Romans conquered Britannia in the first century of the Common Era, the Britons have had a problem with Europe.

They are only a short distance apart, but the relationship between the continent and the British Isles has been fractious at best and downright deadly at worst.

William the Conqueror, of Normandy in France, united the warring factions in 1066 but ever since then they have been at war with each other, on or off, for the better part of a millennium – remember Crecy, Agincourt, Calais, the Armada, Blenheim, the Napoleonic Era, World War I and II? Not to mention innumerable border incursions and raiding parties over literally hundreds of years.

In 1970, the then British prime minister, Edward Heath, convinced the British parliament and people to acquiesce to joining the European Economic Community which eventually morphed into the European Union.

Fifty years later, Britain has finally left in what is described as “Brexit”.

When Britain joined, there was much opposition on both sides of the English Channel.

The French were particularly dyspeptic about the idea. Many in Britain had opposed the plan and felt that the mother country had turned its back on the British Commonwealth. In some ways it had.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson updates the UK on the post-Brexit trade agreement. Picture: Paul Grover/AFP

Certainly not from a ceremonial or diplomatic point of view but Britain was required to shut its open borders to countries like Australia and New Zealand and impose tariffs on our products like meat, cheese and many processed food products.

While it is forgotten now, it was traumatic for many Australian businesses that lost their market and the huge number of Australians of British heritage who felt abandoned.

It was always an unhappy marriage. Hundreds of years of suspicion cannot be just glossed over.

So it was that in June 2016, Britain carried the referendum necessary to exit the EU.

The only difficulty being that no one had any idea what that entailed and how the actual separation would be achieved.

As divorces go, this one has rivalled Liza Minnelli’s last. It’s been a killing field for British prime ministers.

First the popular and capable David Cameron resigned because he opposed leaving the EU and didn’t want responsibility for implementing something he regarded as a daft idea. Then his successor, Theresa May, who gained the hospital pass of Downing Street from Cameron, tried to make sense of the dog’s breakfast that she had been bequeathed and manifestly failed to do so, being dispatched by her party not long before the last British election.

Into the breach stepped the effervescent Boris Johnson, who has managed to exfiltrate Britain from the EU with some sort of deal in place that will minimise the inevitable chaos from January 1, 2021.

Fifty years after joining a club that didn’t really want them and they didn’t really want to be in, Britain is on its own again.

The doubters created enough doubt and nationalism triumphed. At a time when most nations are trying to create and get into new trade blocs, it seems like an unusual and self-defeating decision.

But democracy is democracy. The British people wanted Brexit and they got it.

Most economists predict the British economy will contract and living standards will fall in Britain in the short to medium term.

But at least the pesky legislators in Brussels won’t be poking their collective noses into the business that is Britain’s.

More importantly, what does it mean for us? Even with Britain as part of the EU, our two-way trade was worth more than $30bn in 2018-19. It is our second largest source of foreign investment.

The EU is our third-largest source of foreign investment and our two- way trade with that behemoth was worth $85bn to Australia in 2019.

Australia will now aim to establish a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Britain and a separate agreement with the EU.

Achieving an FTA with Britain should be relatively painless.

We may well look back in the decades hence and see those 50 years of Britain’s membership of a club that we weren’t a part of as a historic aberration, like a returning partner who has been away for some time with an exciting new lover.

An FTA with the EU will be harder as the Europeans are attracted to government support for their inefficient industries and still cling to tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers to reduce competition for their own businesses.

But we should try nonetheless. The prize is worth it.

You never know: Now that they have separated, Britain and the EU might get into a competition to see who can outmanoeuvre the other to achieve the best trade deal with Australia and our cousins across the ditch in New Zealand.