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Clearing up a bit of confusion on the WTO: 164 countries are WTO members. But none of them trade exclusively on WTO terms with all other countries.
That's because they all have free trade deals, trade facilitation arrangements or other deals that give them better-than-WTO terms.
That's because they all have free trade deals, trade facilitation arrangements or other deals that give them better-than-WTO terms.
In the UK's case, 99.3% of our total exports of goods and services went to WTO members. But only 16.4% went to WTO members that didn't have better trade arrangements layered on top of WTO.
So practically all our trade is "with WTO members". But very little of it is on WTO terms.
So practically all our trade is "with WTO members". But very little of it is on WTO terms.
In a no deal Brexit situation, we would lose all our existing trade deals, and would be reliant on WTO terms alone. The only country to do so. A very lonely club indeed!
Think of it this way: WTO terms are equivalent to travelling on foot. You can eventually get from place to place by walking, but it will take you a looooong time. In practice, you would resort to bikes, cars, buses, trains, planes etc. (better-than-WTO-terms trade arrangements).
