In Brexit give-and-take, Britain gives and the EU takes

Though David Davis, Britain’s Brexit secretary, trumpeted on Monday the fact that Britain would be able to negotiate and sign non-European trade deals during the transition, if not to implement them, experts were unimpressed. Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute, describes that as a “token,” since prospects of such talks being completed during the transition period were remote. “I don’t think that’s a real concession,” he said.

...Mr. Grant points out that there is still no detailed policy paper explaining the type of trade deal Britain wants with the European Union, an omission he attributes to political divisions.

...Though Mr. Gove once claimed that “the day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards,” Mr. Grant says the opposite is true, with Britain only having a couple of real bargaining chips. Money was the biggest one, but the Brussels negotiators insisted that the financial terms for divorce were settled early in the talks, reducing London’s leverage.

Britain has coastal waters that other European nations want to fish. But fishermen are popular, so trading their livelihoods for the thing Britain really wants — privileged access to European financial and services markets — would be politically toxic. Britain’s strength as a security partner, while real, is hard to use in negotiations, said Mr. Grant, who noted that Mrs. May provoked a continental backlash when she hinted that she might.