There was a time when we did do business with the US/Canada/Aus/NZ - all a lot further away but old friends and allies and all English spoken - well kind of.
On a different note (but kind of relevant) for some strange reason and speaking generally I seem to have better friendships with Americans than Brits and I have no idea why that is. I have so many American friends online. One of whom has become my best buddy, she comes over here once a year most years and I'm going over there for the second time this year. Despite this when I did go over for the first time a few years back it was a bit of a culture shock...although we are similar in some ways, in others we are very different. I always get the feeling that most Europeans (and some Americans) do not like us Brits. Actually I think we are quite lovely