influential member. what is often forgotten in all the talk of the european union's rules and regulations is that its central project for decades was the creation of a single market, harmonizing taxes, eliminating tariffs, eliminating barriers. that vision was articulated and urged most an glessively by britain's free market prime minister margaret thatcher. washington's former ambassador to the eu stewart eisenstaedt explains that britain was always america's closest ally on substantive issues within europe. he writes, "with brexit, the united states would lose a major supporter on a range of important trade and regulatory issues whether uk's more free market approach mirrored ours more closely than most eu member states." on u.s. sanctions regimes against iran, russia and other countries on data privacy and anti-trust matters on counter-terrorism and on national security issues.