Monday 1 February 2016

Being in the single market is of little value to the UK

Roger Bootle's piece in the business section of today's DT rams this point home.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/12132757/We-should-not-be-swayed-by-soundbites-and-slogans-about-Europe.html

Its an outstanding piece that forensically dismantles the sloganising that the great, good and not so good use instead of rational argument. These slogans are endlessly  parrotted by the juvenile minds the BBC  features endlessly on QT etc. They have the excuse of the naivete of youth but business leaders and politicians cannot be excused. They are cynically promoting their own self interests and bank accounts no concern for our country. Slogans and catch hrases are not rational argument but are what  the BBC peddles non-stop.

Bootle asks the question why do we have to be in the single market? Indeed what is the difference to us between the Common Market we joined in 1973 and the Single Market of 1993?

It is a single regulatory framework that should apply across the EU. We have very little influence on these rules which are decided by QMV under which system we have been outvoted more than any other country roughly 300 times for the UK and 120 times for the next most outvoted country Germany.

But who enforces these rules? Officials of the European Commission. And who are these officials? Well the majority are Franco Prussians who out number British officials roughly 8 to 1. These Franco Prussian officials follow the code Napoleon of applying the rules to their perceived enemies, the Brits, and interpreting the rules for themselves and their friends. Hence the French and Germans can flout EU rules with impunity. What has become of the German diesel car emissions testinng scandal? Well nothing in the EU. Its the Anglo Saxon USA we have to rely on in this matter.

The advantage of the single market to us is that all the rest of the EU are in it so we deal with one set of regulations for our goods sent to the EU but we do not have to be a paying member to benefit from this. GATT rules protest us. As for retaliation the EU is in a weak position as we import far more from them than they do from us. The German car industry is particularly dependent on the UK market with a 30% share of the UK market. That,s a lot of cars, 750000 roughly, enough to bring Merkel to heel the day after a leave vote in the UK referendum.

Then the advantages for a free soverign UK pile up. No EU membership fee. No unsuitable EU regulations restricting our trade paricularly in services Ability to negotiate UK tailor trade deals with the Old Commonwealth, BRICS, China & Japan. Crucially these would be deals negotiated by Brits for B rits not by dodgy mid Europeans with an eye on their own countries trade..

Last but not least we could rclaim our Fisheries and sith the French subsidy CAP.

Remember those who want us to stay in the EU are the same people who warned us of imminent disaster if we did not join the Euro. We all know  how that turned out. Staying out of the Euro was the best decision Gordon ever made.

2 comments:

Edward Spalton said...

This rather overlooks the fact that regulations and directives which come to us via the EU are increasingly global,and not made in Brussels.
They are made by bodies like ISO, WTO and UNECE, the UN Economic Commission Europe. For over twenty years now the EU has been legally obliged to enforce global standards where they exist. The "Top Tables" are not in Brussels but our EU membership ensured we have no voice there, having outsourced such matters to the EU where we are but one of 28 voices and bound to accept the "common position"
decided by the EU Commission.

Mutual recognition of standards is now more important than cutting customs tariffs in facilitating global trade.

Eric Edmond said...

I agree Mr S. I have always WTTO, GATT etc rules not the EU protect our trade