glorygloryeze
Tom Huddlestone
Sure we will still buy salad from the EU, it will just be harder to import with border checks, more expensive due to a lower pound (have that now) and the UK might put on tariff on imports if we want to either protect our salad growing industry or retaliate for some of the EU tariffs on say our lamb. In short, barriers to trade are not good. Leaving the EU and the customs union where trade flows without tariffs or barriers at borders is a backward step whichever way you cut. If we want to keep that freedom we have to follow EU regulations - we'd have to produce food to the EU standards to have free access to sell into their market. Until tomorrow, we help set those standards. In the future we will still conform to those standards but we'll have no say.
Barriers to trade are indeed not good; who will put up that barrier: us or EU? It is us that wants a Free Trade agreement, do the EU? I'm sure the EU trades with other parts of the world that are not part of the EU, so all that stuff about 'standards' is a bit moot; if a product is in demand then it meets a 'standard'. Who checks the 'standards' right now across the EU anyway - are these checks done daily? Are they done daily wth good coming into the EU from outside it, or just tarrifs etc slapped on regardless? This is all politics and as i say, it comes down to Politics vs Economics.
For example, the UK is not going to have a separate car standard to the EU. No car makers would make cars just for the small UK market. We'd have cars with US or EU standards. Same applies to making cars in the UK - we have to make them to EU standards for export. Just in the future, we won't get a say in those standards.
If a car meets that standard of "this car and it's great to drive and safe etc" then it s in demand. Are Japanese cars only made to EU or US standards? Is all this 'standards' just politics? Surely the 'standards' are just to do with safety, whether they are practical for the area they are sold (i.e. left drive vs right drive) and whether they are of the right 'size' for the roads. Cars get bought and sold everywhere, again this is Politics vs Economics. BTW, Will BMW, Mercedes etc refuse to sell to us after we leave because at that point their products will no longer conform to our 'standards'?
What you and others don't seem to acknowledge is that most of our exports go to the EU - 45%.
8% of the EUs exports go to the UK
UK is one of the EU's biggest customers regardless of those figures. I'm sure for Ireland the UK is it's number one export market, so again this is Politics (should all countries act as one when it comes to trade?) vs Economics (actually do Ireland need the UK as a trading partner seeing that UK is Ireland's biggest export market and also land gateway to it's other export markets in the EU?).
Can you see who has a stronger negotiating hand, and which party needs which more?
Trade works both ways; we are a single country and you are combining all the trade wiTh 27 other countries; it has to be taken into account that a) those other 27 are not ONE country and b) there is a variance in the dependencies and trade with each one with and the UK (eg Ireland vs say, Austria).
Canada has a free trade agreement sure. But it does not cover services - what the UK does most, what is it 80% of our economy? THe Canada fta only covers certain areas and would not be suited to the UK. Yes we can get a trade deal, but it will be a backward step for free trade and cost the UK. We can then make new trade deals with other nations, but most of our trade is with the EU, which is the same all over the world - people trade most with nations closest to them.
No-one is saying we should no trade with the EU, but that we should not be fixed into the Political machinations of the EU and also be freer to trade with he rest of the world on terms we decide and not on terms decided centrally for 28 countries (as though they are ONE country, which evidently they ar not). Oh and in terms of services, we are still important and in terms of financial services, as my post yesterday shows, we are still at the forefront of that even though we are leaving.
So...no massive changes, you'll still get salad, the UK will still trade. Just in a less efficient, less free way. This will make the UK less attractive to the likes of Sony (already moved to Amsterdam), Japanese car firms etc etc. So no massive fast change that we'll notice too much, but a slow degrading of the UK economy. Something that has started already with investment into the UK falling.
You don't mention the financial organisations setting up here post-Brexit - some for the very first time. Also, foreign investment into the UK has been outstripping investment into France, Germany combined over the last few years or so, and London is no 1 city for investment in fintech firms. So i don't know what you mean by your last point really..
If you could point to benefits of brexit that make this slight degrading of the UK economy worthwhile I'd be eager to listen. But why are we doing this? What do we get back?
I and other have pointed out ad finitum, but as usual you wont acknowledge, so carry on moaning...