BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room: How to do a trade deal

For the first time in decades the UK will now negotiate its own trade deals. David Aaronovitch explores our options and likely outcomes. Free trade deals can take years and require hundreds of highly skilled staff in what are described as the biggest games of poker you can play.

Former US trade negotiators reveal a world of bluffs, plays and tapped phone calls. How should the UK should play its hand with the US, EU and rest of the world as we exit the European Union? There are losers in every trade deal, how prepared is the UK to cope with that?

Contributors: Soumaya Keynes, trade and globalisation editor, The Economist, Charles Grant, Centre for European Reform, Ron Sorini, Sorini, Samet and Associates, Wendy Cutler, Asia Society Policy Institute and Roderick Abbot, former senior trade official with the European Commission and trade negotiator