But we may well need Europe more than Europe needs us in a rather bigger way in coming years when it comes to making the most of what’s happening in global trade, where we’re hoping to make significant progress. The World Trade Organisation, and its interminable round of talks, has generated nothing but yawns for years. But things are changing and improvements in global trade could well be one of the most significant economic developments of the next 18-24 months. There is a pragmatic move being led by the International Chambers of Commerce, in partnership with the WTO, to implement the elements of the now stalled Doha round of trade talks which were agreed over the past decade but never implemented. This bottleneck is down to the WTO’s archaic “single undertaking” negotiating rules whereby everything on the negotiating table has to be agreed by everyone or nothing is agreed. That looks like being overcome by the end of 2013, clearing a log jam so that several “Doha deliverables” will take effect — including the liberalisation of trade in services which is the UK’s biggest overseas earner.