![](https://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/styles/spotlight/public/hamburg_dock_trade_sl_4.jpg?itok=01F1tpGc)
The pursuit of free trade
Sam Lowe, a trade specialist at the Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU think tank, is more blunt: “The problem facing Johnson and his global-Britain outriders is that globalisation has stalled. There could hardly be a more challenging environment for leaving the EU’s single market and customs union and attempting to rebuild a trade policy from scratch.”