Wednesday 29 March 2017

The weasel words of the Remoaners on UK trade under WTO rules

The objective financial costs of UK trade under WTO rules can be found  by clicking link below:

http://www.civitas.org.uk/reports_articles/potential-post-brexit-tariff-costs-for-eu-uk-trade/

One of the most distasteful aspects of the whole EU debate is the use by politicians and journalists of unjustified, scaremongering emotive language. One of the worst is the phrase 'crashing out of EU trade deals and falling into WTO rules favoured by Nicky Morgan. The link above by an independent think tank shows the costs to the UK  of £5.2 billion in additional tariffs on exports  but that the costs to the EU on their exports to the UK would be £12.9 billion. So it would cost the EU over twice what it costs the UK!

Obviously not desirable but a strong incentive for the EU to come to a deal with the UK. So the crash is on the EU side. with Germany and France the big losers.

But when we are out of the EU we can adjust our tariffs to benefit our industry. I quote from the Civitas report.

The UK will have the chance to adjust for these changes. It has the opportunity on leaving the EU to alter its tariff schedule in a manner that is more favourable to UK businesses, reducing tariffs on input products for UK manufacturers and other products that are not manufactured in the UK, while keeping tariffs on goods that can be manufactured in the UK that are perhaps not yet competitively produced. Further still, the depreciation of sterling, although it will lead to increases in import prices, will reduce the cost of buying goods from the UK. Both these factors will allow the UK economy to adjust for the introduction of tariffs if there is no trade agreement.

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