Obama’s foray into Europe lecturing, hectoring and threatening the citizens of the UK to remain in the EU invited the deserved scorn he received by the Eurosceptics. With the threat that the UK would be placed at the end of queue for trade deals if the UK votes for BREXIT, Obama is resorting to one of his favourite weapons against countries that have the temerity to disagree with the US, these threats being another form of sanctions.

The so-called special relationship the US has with the UK is only of value to the US if the UK can be counted on to do the US bidding in international matters. And, it generally does so with the recent exception of the UK agreeing to participate in the AIIB, despite US counter pressure. As for the US concern about the UK leaving the EU, again the reason is simply that the US would lose its “camel’s nose in the tent door”, the influence the US has by dint of the UK membership in the EU.

As Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, said, the US is cajoling the UK to do something the US would never do, hand over its sovereignty to a supranational state. Would the US government and its people consent to the US being subject to the laws of a North American Union? Hardly! The US only participates in institutions over which it holds sway such as the IMF and World Bank or, in which it holds outright veto, the UN Security council. The proposed Pacific and Atlantic Trade agreements, the TPP and TTIP, both products of the US State Department, are designed to extend US global economic and political hegemony. However, the US refuses to join the AIIB, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank because it was founded by China. The US will not collaborate in anything that enhances China’s influence nor in which the US does not have the final word.

Baoluo