The EU has leapt ahead of the UK in the pursuit of free trade deals with Australia and New Zealand after member states gave the green light for talks to start within weeks.

As director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, I know what this institution does – and the notion that it can pick up the slack when the UK leaves the EU is nonsense.

In the wake of Brexit, the Commonwealth has been identified as an important body for future British trade and diplomacy, but few know what it actually does. How is it organised and what has held it together for so long? / In The Empire’s New Clothes,​ Murphy strips away the gilded self-image of the Commonwealth to reveal an irrelevant institution afflicted by imperial amnesia.

But as potential havoc draws near, May’s government seems to have its attention elsewhere. Burdened by their deliberations with Europe, key cabinet ministers are instead trying to woo support from Britain’s former colonies.

This issue of Commonwealth Trade Hot Topics analyses ‘Brexit’ – the UK’s departure from the European Union (EU) – and shows that the effects for some Commonwealth countries may be severe unless specific actions are taken to avoid this.

Indian candidate fills 15th and final place on bench of international court of justice after UK withdraws its pick for post.

With a disorderly Brexit on the horizon, a timely lesson in humility may be fast approaching.

Commonwealth leaders intend to hold to the guiding principle of equality among the members of the 53-nation club.

Zimbabwe's new president thinks Brexit is a "good thing" because it will "need" Zimbabwe.

The prospect of the UK formulating its own trade policy following Brexit is likely to have implications for the existing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and some African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, and the UK’s future trading arrangements with the ACP.

Australians want the UK to do well. But there’s no way free trade with us or others can make up for the hit of leaving the EU.

'For Britain’s economic self-interest, as well as the wider political interests of the western community of nations, Britain should remain in the EU', Kevin Rudd argues

Australians have had their fair share of political turbulence in recent years but, as Nick D Miller explains in a new book ,'Do They Mean Us?', many Down Under simply cannot understand Britain's act of self-sabotage.

A large number of our readers have asked us to factcheck a list of claims about the Lisbon Treaty, or “what will actually happen if we stay in the EU”, which has gone viral on social media.

Britain's moves to leave the European Union may complicate life for our exporters but will not damage New Zealand’s economy, Prof Robert Patman says.

Malcolm Turnbull said a UK trade deal with Australia would not replace the benefits of being inside the world's largest trading bloc.

"The reality is that half of your trade goes to the EU. Britain’s trade with Australia is a very small percentage.”

Commonwealth troops who earn less than the £25,600-a-year minimum salary threshold could be locked out under the rules - unless an exemption is carved out for them.

Dozens of countries fear Boris Johnson is hindering reappointment of secretary general.

If not, and the vote is to exit, it will be no good saying afterwards that “we didn’t understand what we were voting for” – the repeated complaint made by eurosceptics about the 1975 Referendum. By then it will be too late.

'It is hard to predict how full Brexit would play out, because this scale of multiple simultaneous renegotiations of global trade agreements is unprecedented – and no country has ever left the EU. It certainly can’t be assumed that Britain is bound to get quick and good deals because it is a large economy.'

Brexiters are often accused of living in the past. That is manifest in the now recurring Brexiter response to concerns about Brexit: ‘but we did perfectly well before’.

The Caribbean island’s leader says its people want a ‘Barbadian head of state’ and aim to achieve the goal by November 2021.