Liam Fox was on the news saying that after Article 50 is triggered he can quickly proceed with a free trade deal with China.
Is Fox stupid or naive?
I am sure most of us realise that there are currently import duties plus anti-dumping duties from China to the EU. These duties are there to protect EU manufacturers from 'dumping' by chinese producers,in reality they are protectionism to stop cheap chinese products destroying our less competitive industries. They were principally invented by the Germans but we also by being an EU member enjoy that protection.
By way of example the total duty on bicycles is 68%,the duty on electric bikes is only 6%?????strange,but that is how it is.
If we strike a free trade deal with China and the EU let us continue with free trade access to the EU single market,then we could buy bikes from China(as low as 50 dollars cost)and do serious damage to the German/Dutch/Spanish cycle industry.
The EU are not stupid,if we strike a free trade deal with China they will immediately consider the UK as a satellite of China and impose the same tariffs that currently exist between China to EU onto UK to EU.
That will hurt not only goods that source from China but goods which are made in the UK,Pashley and Brompton cycles will be badly affected.
The effect will be that the EU will be a difficult region to trade with and most companies far from being outward looking will look towards the home market,revenues/profits will reduce because the chinese imports will make us much more domestically competitive.
Cars assembled in China will have free access to the UK so Nissan and Honda will have no point assembling in the UK,Ford has one of the largest car assembly plants in Nanjing,they already have purpose built ships to ship Ford cars over the world,shipping tariff free into the UK would be so simple for them.
It will make Dover the smuggling capital of the world,especially if the pound/euro remains depressed.
This deal they propose for Northern Ireland would be a problem,if they have no border between N.I. and Ireland and controls as though it were one country then N.I. residents are going to be fed up that they are subject to EU import tariffs yet as part of the UK they should enjoy tariff free access to China like England and Wales,Scotland will be in a similar position if it becomes independent of the UK,that will be a real mess.
For those who think the foregoing is sour grapes on my part,I buy from over 130 companies in China,such a deal would be wonderful business for me,some of my chinese suppliers are already suggesting products that would be good sellers in the UK if we could avoid the anti-dumping duty,my business would be the perfect conduit for such trade but it would do serious damage to what is left of our manufacturing industry.
I hope Liam Fox understands the implications of a free trade deal with China!!!!
KudosDave