The key word I used was "parallel"
And it's in neither side's interests for the negotiations to last seven years. Two to three seems like a reasonable time span. Some trade deals have taken a lot longer, and some have taken a lot less time. The key is how motivated both parties would be to find a solution. I'd suggest in this case the answer would be "very".
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Mon 27 Jun 2016, 15:20,
Reply)
Does the civil service contain sufficient numbers of experienced trade negotiators
in order to conduct such a massive undertaking as to renegotiate all our agreements in parallel?
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Mon 27 Jun 2016, 15:36,
Reply)
Well if it doesn't
then you've just created a large number of skilled job opportunities. Hooray!
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Mon 27 Jun 2016, 16:19,
Reply)
If they can be conducted in parallel, fine.
The optomists are still saying seven years to negotiate a new UK-EU trade deal. The US, China, India and Japan have stated they will not start trade talks with the UK until the UK-EU deal is finished. I'm not convinced both parties are very motivated, just the UK.
(, Mon 27 Jun 2016, 17:55, Reply)