Some more trade facts for you Tillson.
Useful briefing from the House of Commons Library, showing:
- the UK exported £230 billion worth of goods & services to the rest of the EU in 2015, up £97.3bn since 1999
- 58% of the goods we export go to other EU Member States
- if we leave and fall back on WTO rules, our exports to the EU of dairy products would face 33.5% tariffs, sugar and confectionary would face 20.2% tariffs, beverages 19.4% tariffs, animal products 15% tariffs, cereals 12.4% tariffs, fish & fish products 12% tariffs, clothing 11.4% tariffs, fruit, veg & plants 10.3% tariffs... and on and on and on.
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http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7851
So... he's my pondering.
The EU is essentially a club, really designed to promote and protect trade within the club. So when we leave, the €230 billion we currently sell to that club will be hit with tariffs... because the EU will want those €230billion worth of sales for business within the EU. They have a big market, and a huge population so they can probably achieve this. We'll suddenly loose a big chunk of our exports.
The 42% of goods we export to counties outside the EU, we do do so though our EU trade agreements with those other countries. 63 of them to be precise.
So if / when we leave the EU, we won't just be loosing our deal with the EU, we'll be loosing our deal with the other 63 countries we currently benefit from trade deals with. We'll default to WTO rules until we can negotiate all 64 agreements. So once we have 64 agreements, remember again that we'll be competing with the EU now, no longer part of it. We have to try as a small nation to get a deal thats as good as the whole EU currently has, and that will just be to get back to a deal as good we we've got now.
How long will that take, and how much hope is there that we'll even get a deal as good as we've got now?? They are questions I can't answer.
