Before Britain voted to withdraw from the European Union last month, American president Barack Obama warned it would have to join at the “back of the queue” to get a bilateral trade deal.

Now that Britain has defied the president’s advice to stay in the EU, it seems the Americans are rethinking their approach. The Financial Times reports that representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States have already met to test the waters for a trade accord.

Wolfgang Münchau makes a tantalizing suggestion in the same newspaper: If the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership isn’t going anywhere — and with Germany’s Social Democrats joining the opposition to the pact, it’s starting to look like a lost cause — why not use it as a template for an Anglo-American treaty?

Britain could end up with the best of both worlds, argues Münchau: “access to the EU single market and deeper economic integration with the United States.”

It’s a best-case outcome. A lot hinges on what exactly “access” to the European single market means. But it’s heartening that America — Britain’s number-one trading partner — is more open to a deal than Obama let on three months ago.