Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Of course, all those German car manufacturers would be delighted to see the UK denied an accommodation on trade. As would just about every business in Eire that exports anything to anywhere. Ditto the Spanish strawberry growers, happily planting away right now, in time to send us juicy ripe fruit by the truck load, just in time for Wimbledon.
We have a trade deficit with the EU. There is no way on Earth that the organisation would fail to agree trade terms with the UK as a part of exit agreements. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous.
And our trade with the EU is not 'around 50%'. It dropped below 44% last September and the indications are that it is continuing to drop.
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We have a trade deficit now. However as much as the EU is dropping that is not a constant. Just because it's dropping now doesn't mean it will continue to do so. When the economies in Europe recover then they'll become a massive trading block for us again. Not to mention they're in the middle of getting America to sign a free trade deal with the EU.
It's not just a case of who would want us to be their customers, it's also a case of who would want the jobs that we currently have. There will be companies in France, Germany, Spain who wouldn't mind seeing our exports hit with a tariff. We still make quite a lot of car parts for example and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that another country would want those contracts and have a equally as much as an interest in kicking us out as the car manufacturers have in keeping us in. Especially if the prospect of America opens up to them, then they won't really lose as much in terms of possible customers.
It's not just buying/selling. It's the ease in which these European companies can diversify their operations across the continent in terms of resources and staff.
---------- Post added at 11:02 ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 ----------
I should point out that I am not saying that we're certainly lose from leaving the EU but that's it's not so cut and dried that we'll gain either.