Senior EU politicians demanded Saturday that the United Kingdom quickly cut its ties with the 28-nation bloc – a process Britain says won’t begin for several months – as the political and economic shockwaves from the U.K.’s vote to leave reverberated around the world.
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Obama, who had argued passionately against Britain leaving the European Union in a trip to the country this year, vowed that Washington would still maintain both its “special relationship” with London and close ties to Brussels.
“While the UK’s relationship with the European Union will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations. That will endure”, he told an event at Stanford University, referring to close ally Britain. A survey in March of American companies showed that 95% favored Britain remaining in the European Union and President Obama urged the same.
Britain need not send a formal letter to the European Union to trigger a two-year countdown to its exit from the bloc, EU officials said, implying British Prime Minister David Cameron could start the process when he speaks at a summit on Tuesday. But he said he expected British economic growth to be zero or negative in the short and medium term, with a secondary impact over time as London’s financial services sector, which makes up about 10 percent of the economy, begins to move staff and headquarters to Frankfurt, Paris, or Dublin.
The British pound, the euro, and stock markets around the world fell on the news.
“I hope that we are not playing cat and mouse”, warned Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn with a view at London’s policy.
Vice President Joe Biden’s reaction was blunt: “We preferred a different outcome”.
Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, were already stalled by deeply entrenched differences and growing anti-trade sentiment on both continents.
Leaders of the European Union institutions and several member states led by France fear anything but a swift exit for Britain would embolden populist, euroskeptic insurgencies on the continent.
“Tonight is giant victory for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s foreign policy objectives”, wrote Michael McFaul, a former United States ambassador to Moscow.
“We must maintain our trans-Atlantic consensus on how to deal with a resurgent Russian Federation and the growing threat of ISIS”, he said.
“I was led to believe that part of the money we pay to be in Europe was going to go on the NHS”.
Trump’s rise was sustained by a similar brew of anti-establishment and anti-globalisation sentiment and concern about immigration that helped the Leave vote.
“A lot of people in Britain said, ‘How dare the American president come here and tell us what to do?’ ” Farage continued on Sirius XM’s “Breitbart News Daily”, citing Obama’s United Kingdom trip in April. “But once you scratch the surface a little bit … a lot of them don’t want a permanent ride on the big dipper”.
With impeccable timing, Donald Trump arrived in Britain Friday to open a new golf course in Scotland. If it is right and proper for the people to have a say on European Union membership, shouldn’t they also have a say on the outcome of the negotiations to determine whether they are what the Leave campaign promised? House Speaker Paul Ryan said the vote was “all the more reason for America to lead”.
Voters were also polled by their political leanings.
“The U.K.is going to be in the back of the queue”, he said during an appearance alongside Cameron.
“This process should get underway as soon as possible so that we are not left in limbo but rather can concentrate on the future of Europe”, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after hosting a meeting of his colleagues from the six founding members of the EU – Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The US Federal Reserve sought to calm global financial markets by saying it was ready to provide dollar liquidity following the British vote.
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United States financial regulators said the country’s financial system is functioning in an “orderly manner”. That would put a two-year clock on the divorce talks. Traders of US-interest rate futures even began to price in a small chance of a Fed rate cut, and now see little chance of any hike until the end of next year.
