Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I think the bigger issue with loss of single-market membership is pan-European business. Not everything is a product entirely made here, or Europe, and then shipped back or forth for an exchange of cash. A lot of it will be income generated by a business working across borders as if it were one nation, i.e a single market, which may suddenly become more prohibitive. Say a French lawyer working in Germany on behalf of a British firm. Situations such as that are way people say free movement of people is part of the single market because you can't have people applying for work permits for that to work. Instead companies can set up in Europe knowing they're able to address the European market as if it were a single entity with everything from their employees to the regulations they need to abide by.
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Indeed. A simple example is that if people look at things as mundane as some supermarket own brand products they'll see that they came from Belgium, the Netherlands or similar. On WTO rules those carry pretty sizeable tariffs.
A more complex example is our car industry. We assemble the vehicles here using parts imported from Europe. Without the single market there are potentially tariffs to pay on those parts. Even if there are no tariffs there are issues with point of origin, non-tariff barriers are a big problem.
It's an unenviable list of challenges wanting to disentangle the UK completely from the EU in one fell swoop. Let's hope our politicians are up to it, there's certainly little indication thusfar that they are.