[Glen]

free and do trade deals with populations of billions instead of millions

Historically, the UK has shown it takes them about 3 months to agree zero-tariff trade with no strings attached. I suspect the UK seeks to line-up a catalogue of trade agreements before triggering Article 50, so I think we will see UK-EU exit negotiations from 2017 at the earliest. The world knows that UK-EU negotiations are an entirely different game involving a much slower engine, so they will all be hoping that goes smoothly.

Britain veered towards membership of the European Union in 1973, its interest in the Commonwealth as a trading and investment forum diminished. With the founder losing interest, the rest of the Commonwealth started looking for other regional groupings.

Despite the EU disruption, important global trade links have remained and signs suggest the UK can re-engage with its historic partners. There are also voices calling to strengthen the Commonwealth with the free trade pact, worth $4 trillion in 2008.

I believe the Commonwealth is uniquely placed to make the case for trade and to catalyse an increase in investment and trade which quite frankly is the single biggest and most important stimulus we can give our economies right now.

The Commonwealth members heard Cameron and they are now responding. The immediate challenge is that Canada/Australia (and hopefully others) are asking for more than tariff-free trade, which is going to involve deeper negotiations requiring more than 3 months.