Brexit, for once some facts.

anotherkiwi

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Jan 26, 2015
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it's not so much that we can't invest, the real problem is volume. We gave up exporting goods many years ago, it will take a lot of effort to build up volume.
A trading nation that gave up on exporting goods made in said nation. Truly there is a message there is there not?
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
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wooshbikes.co.uk
Under WTO, how would UK exports to EU be treated? More generously than the tariff being applied to Chinese imports, I assume.

Let us say that you came up with a good, competitive design for a motor - a key component. You want to sell it to, among others, the big German companies like Cube. Would you be able to compete better against Bosch with their being inside the EU (and the SM) - or outside operating under some form of WTO?
WTO is easier regime for small manufacturing firms, a small fish in a small pond has less chance to be eaten. The EU has the size of the Barrier Reef.
 

oyster

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Nov 7, 2017
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WTO is easier regime for small manufacturing firms, a small fish in a small pond has less chance to be eaten. The EU has the size of the Barrier Reef.
If WTO is easier, doesn't that mean there is likely to be more competition as others pile in?
 
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Kudoscycles

Official Trade Member
Apr 15, 2011
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Under WTO, how would UK exports to EU be treated? More generously than the tariff being applied to Chinese imports, I assume.

Let us say that you came up with a good, competitive design for a motor - a key component. You want to sell it to, among others, the big German companies like Cube. Would you be able to compete better against Bosch with their being inside the EU (and the SM) - or outside operating under some form of WTO?
It would be relatively easy to persuade a Chinese manufacturer to come over to the U.K. and assemble here. But it needs volume and we don’t sell enough e-bikes in the U.K. and we may have post Brexit no way of selling to Europe.
KudosDave
 

oyster

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It would be relatively easy to persuade a Chinese manufacturer to come over to the U.K. and assemble here. But it needs volume and we don’t sell enough e-bikes in the U.K. and we may have post Brexit no way of selling to Europe.
KudosDave
In the wonderful post-Brexit world, we will have the rest of the world queuing up to buy our products. We will have trade agreements with half the countries on planet to supply ebikes, and ebike parts.

All we have to do is manufacture sufficient product, of sufficient quality, efficiently, and deliver. Shame we will struggle to do any of them from the standing start we are at.

Even more of a shame that we have yet to see a vestige of a queue of other countries even considering buying our currently non-existent products. (Even if they were Chinese in origin.)
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,376
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Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
In the wonderful post-Brexit world, we will have the rest of the world queuing up to buy our products. We will have trade agreements with half the countries on planet to supply ebikes, and ebike parts.

All we have to do is manufacture sufficient product, of sufficient quality, efficiently, and deliver. Shame we will struggle to do any of them from the standing start we are at.

Even more of a shame that we have yet to see a vestige of a queue of other countries even considering buying our currently non-existent products. (Even if they were Chinese in origin.)
WTO protects small businesses with trade barriers, SM is perfect for large businesses. If you make for example a small series of CF bikes, you can buy more cheaply under WTO, take advantage of being local supplier to your country to market your small production more effectively, are less exposed to the competition of global brands. Even if you don't export much, your chance of survival is much greater.
 
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oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
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WTO protects small businesses with trade barriers, SM is perfect for large businesses. If you make for example a small series of CF bikes, you can buy more cheaply under WTO, take advantage of being local supplier to your country to market your small production more effectively, are less exposed to the competition of global brands. Even if you don't export much, your chance of survival is much greater.
But buying parts and assembling them for the UK only is hardly the fantastic opportunity claimed for brexit.
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,376
16,875
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
But buying parts and assembling them for the UK only is hardly the fantastic opportunity claimed for brexit.
there are plenty of opportunities to add innovation when you sell your products and prosper. For example, I can easily create an Android app to control an Arduino built into some Chinese mass produced controllers that shall remain nameless. What is my chance to make it in the SM context? nil because of all the EMF testing requirements. I would need to sell tens of thousands to make a profit. So why bother? but if the UK market is closed a little to some big brands like Cube and Kalkhof, I may make a few hundreds.
 

Danidl

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Sep 29, 2016
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there are plenty of opportunities to add innovation when you sell your products and prosper. For example, I can easily create an Android app to control an Arduino built into some Chinese mass produced controllers that shall remain nameless. What is my chance to make it in the SM context? nil because of all the EMF testing requirements. I would need to sell tens of thousands to make a profit. So why bother? but if the UK market is closed a little to some big brands like Cube and Kalkhof, I may make a few hundreds.
Woosh that is a pathetic arguement. You can do better than that. If you have a product likely to make money, and create employment you will get backing from state enterprise boards. The EU and local government support networks in every EU country ( cannot talk about the UK , perhaps they were unwilling to engage). Europe is awash with tiny, small and medium enterprises designing all sorts of giszmos
 

oldgroaner

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Nov 15, 2015
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there are plenty of opportunities to add innovation when you sell your products and prosper. For example, I can easily create an Android app to control an Arduino built into some Chinese mass produced controllers that shall remain nameless. What is my chance to make it in the SM context? nil because of all the EMF testing requirements. I would need to sell tens of thousands to make a profit. So why bother? but if the UK market is closed a little to some big brands like Cube and Kalkhof, I may make a few hundreds.
Great, that will really save the UK economy won't it!
You are looking at advantages for small scale operators, exactly what we don't need nationally.
 
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oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
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And the Daily Mail is singing this song

"
QUENTIN LETTS: Damn our elite and its suicidal compulsion to defy the people.

Forgetting that a faction of the "elite" are behind Brexit, (even though some of the money and support may be from the Russian Elite)

And why is it "suicidal" to defy an artificially created Brexit impulse among the public that will prove disastrous?
And the huge irony of this chap saying "Damn our elite" when in fact he is an agent provocateur of a faction of that very elite shows what a hypocrite he is, especially when you consider that faction he represents wants to use "the will of the people" to harm them!
 
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anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
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I can easily create an Android app to control an Arduino built into some Chinese mass produced controllers that shall remain nameless.
You can PM me I won't tell anyone else the name :rolleyes:
 

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
I can easily create an Android app to control an Arduino built into some Chinese mass produced controllers
If you can see that, don't you think that many others can also see it and, perhaps, be in a better position to exploit it?

In the realm of motor vehicles, the need to lock down system is becoming more and more obvious. It seems highly unlikely that any systems won't eventually be protected against hacking (except where ignorance, indolence, etc. mean it doesn't actually happen). Further, that such locking down will be enforced by law on manufacturers and importers.

Seems entirely feasible that, whether covering our limited ebikes is consciously intended or not, that same locking down will be mandated for all vehicles. A way-in such as you suggest might have a very limited shelf-life.
 

Danidl

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2016
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Oh Dear the Government needs a new distraction
From the Telegraph
"
England 1-2 Croatia Heartbreak as extra-time goal sinks our brave Three Lions"

Brave? how is it "Brave" to lose a football match?
Still the cartoonist Matt hit the nail on the head
It was an entirely enjoyable match. I would not have been dissatisfied had England won. I felt that theEngland coaches approach and sense of fair play when congratulating the Croatian coach, will stand to England in the future.
Regarding "Heros" .. there is a nice Eric Bogle song regarding Austrialia on that theme,which sums it up for me.
 
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oldtom

Esteemed Pedelecer
From days of yore, we learned that Napoleon Bonaparte viewed England as a nation of shopkeepers......or it might have been Adam Smith.... but that was then. In a future outside of the EU, given the intransigence and wicked disregard for the people displayed by this fascist government, the UK as it is now, will necessarily become a nation of shoplifters if current trends continue.

Who would ever have imagined that, in this second decade of the 21st century, millions would be reliant on food banks, just to survive? Moreover, even charity shops are now experiencing thefts, increased enormously since Mary Portas did a TV show condemning the lack of business expertise displayed by charitable organisations.

The application of modern, best business practice has since been adopted by most of the well-known High St charity shops and that has meant installing a board of entrepreneurial-minded individuals with a CEO on a six-figure salary, some commanding similar remuneration to university vice-chancellors.

Meanwhile, the number of rough sleepers in our city centres is escalating while the government does a 21st century version of Nero fiddling while Rome burns, while merrily reciting, 'It's the will of the people' whenever questioned about the wisdom of their actions.

I can imagine in the not-too-distant future, another wave of 1950s-style emigration from the UK to Australia/NZ and elsewhere as 'Brexit' gradually takes grip and those with young families consider the best future for their children.

Tom
 

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