UK votes for #BrExit from the EU. 52% Leave - 48% Stay.

[Carana]

I do wish that David Davis and Assange could arrange for one of them to have a tattoo etched onto their nose to make it easier to distinguish them visually... 

[Myster]

Haven't we all got a doppelganger, Carana?... mine's Freddy Krueger 

[Carana]

Haven't we all got a doppelganger, Carana?... mine's Freddy Krueger 

A nail file might be cheaper... 

[Carana]

At the moment (and I may change my mind about this), but my impression is that TM has brought in Brexiteers who are going to have to deliver more than airy-fairy PR slogans.

Either they pull their socks up (or whatever else they may have dropped along the way) and implement the lofty promises, or they'll be toast.

[sadie]

Haven't we all got a doppelganger, Carana?... mine's Freddy Krueger 

Sorry I cant agree about Davis and Assange being alike.

To me they are quite different.

[mercury]

I don't think Cameron was that bad, either, actually.

Depends on your defintion of bad and bad prime minster

[Carana]

Depends on your defintion of bad and bad prime minster

Hmmm. I'd agree that I don't think he'd thought through proposing a referendum.

[mercury]

Hmmm. I'd agree that I don't think he'd thought through proposing a referendum.

No he didnt and it was just another hallmark of his modus operandi

The reason he wasnt an impressive leader or even a good one is that basically he did not deliver on his promises but also went 180 degrees on them by implementing policies that proved he was a hypocrite, I dont know how better to say it

[Carana]

Hmmmm. I think a few more coffees might be helpful in order to examine this a bit more thoroughly.



 BREXIT STRATEGY May’s new chief Europe negotiator David Davis lays out plans to take us out of EU

Minister expects negotiations with UK's favoured trade partners to take place within 12-24 months
By DAVID DAVIS, Newly appointed Brexit Secretary
15th July 2016, 4:10 am

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1447494/mays-new-chief-europe-negotiator-david-davis-lays-out-plans-to-take-us-out-of-eu/

[Carana]

Single countries, with ability to be flexible and focussed, negotiate trade deals far more quickly than trade blocs. South Korea negotiated a deal with the US in a single year. The EU takes more than six years to negotiate trade deals.

I expect the new Prime Minister to trigger a round of global trade deals with all our most favoured partners — and the negotiation of most within between 12 and 24 months.

Hmmm.

The United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement (officially: Free trade agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Korea),[1] also known as KORUS FTA,[2] is a trade agreement between the United States and the Republic of Korea. Negotiations were announced on February 2, 2006, and concluded on April 1, 2007. The treaty was first signed on June 30, 2007, with a renegotiated version signed in early December 2010.[3][4]


Ok, but what appears to be glossed over is that the agreement seemes to have only entered into effect in March 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Korea_Free_Trade_Agreement

It is also worth noting that there was a large and unpredicted increase in the size of the U.S. trade
deficit with South Korea following the implementation of the KORUS. The U.S. trade deficit with
South Korea more than doubled from $13.2 billion in 2011, the last year before the agreement took
effect to $28.3 billion in 2015.
2
http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/trade-and-jobs-2016-04.pdf

I make that 6 years from the start of negotiations to when the agreement actually came into effect, i.e., the same amount of time as the EU ones...

[Carana]

Deals with the US and China alone will give us a trade area almost twice the size of the EU — and of course, we will also be seeking deals with many others.

This will provide massive markets for our exports and cut costs for our manufacturing industries.

Ok. Eventually.


Take our car manufacturers. Electronics in today’s cars exceed 25 per cent of total vehicle value. And the vast majority of the world’s electronic components are manufactured in Asia. Many of these face tariffs, increasing cost. Elimination of such tariffs will decrease the cost of manufacturing a car in the UK, increasing our industry’s global competitiveness.


Hmmm. But the WTO has already agreed to progressively drop tariffs on car-related components for all 192 members as of this month anyway.

So, yes, it would decrease the cost of manufacturing a car in the UK, but how would it increase the UK's global competitiveness in particular when car manufacturers in other countries also benefit from the same deal?  &%+((£



The new trade deal will exempt IT-related products worth $1.3 trillion annually from import tariffs

By Peter Sayer Follow

IDG News Service | Dec 17, 2015 5:50 AM PT

 In a move meant to cut the cost of IT and consumer electronics products, the World Trade Organization is ending tariffs on imports including game consoles, TVs, GPS receivers and advanced chips from July 2016.

The tariffs -- in some countries as high as 35 percent on products such as video cameras -- will be phased out over seven years under an agreement finalized Wednesday, and applies to all 192 member countries of the WTO.

The vast majority of the savings will take effect next July, when tariffs are abolished on around 130 categories of IT equipment, accounting for 88 percent of affected imports, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said Wednesday.

By 2019, 95 percent of imports affected by the changes will be tariff-free, with all 201 product categories covered by the agreement being exempted within seven years, Azevêdo said.

Other products that will become tariff-exempt include touch screens, telecommunications satellites, tools for manufacturing printed circuits and some medical products, he said.

 While cars aren't directly affected by the trade deal, components to make them safer and more fuel-efficient are, as the multicomponent integrated circuits they contain were recently reclassified as semiconductors, one of the categories exempted from tariffs, according to the European Semiconductor Industry Association.

The agreement affects around 10 percent of the world trade in information and communications technology products and will eliminate around $50 billion in tariffs annually, according to IT industry lobby group DigitalEurope. It expects a $190 billion boost to global GDP from the changes.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3016398/computer-hardware/wto-tariff-deal-should-mean-cheaper-electronics-by-summer.html

Next bit:
The same will happen across other industries as tariffs come down and the cost of doing business with the UK is reduced. The new trade agreements will come into force at the point of exit from the EU but be fully negotiated and understood well before then. That means foreign investment by companies keen to take advantage of these deals will grow in the next two years.

Tell that to the US and South Korea...

[Carana]

Regulation already in place will stay, for the moment, but the flood of new regulation from Europe will be halted.

It will?

We should also continue lessening the tax burden. In particular, taxes that have a harmful effect on growth.

This Conservative Government has done good work in this area, with corporate tax cut from almost 30 per cent to 20 and plans to cut it to 15.

Ok, I get that bit.

There is some justified (IMO) criticism of the EU here:
http://qz.com/721089/the-case-for-brexit/


This will make the UK a more attractive business destination — and tax gained from companies moving their operations to the UK, through the people they employ and the sales they generate, will more than offset any reduced corporate tax take.

Hmmm. Assuming that the target export market of those new companies is not the EU...

[Carana]

This leaves the question of Single Market access. The ideal outcome is continued tariff-free access. Once the European nations realise we will not budge on control of our borders, they will want to talk, in their own interests.

Ask Switzerland...


There will be lower prices in the shops once we are outside the Common External Tariff.

Lower prices for what? Food?

[Alice Purjorick]

This leaves the question of Single Market access. The ideal outcome is continued tariff-free access. Once the European nations realise we will not budge on control of our borders, they will want to talk, in their own interests.

Ask Switzerland...


There will be lower prices in the shops once we are outside the Common External Tariff.

Lower prices for what? Food?

Random thoughts:
We import 40% of our food don't we ? (at the mercy of exchange rates and fuel prices)
Car industry : The only true UK manufacturers are TVR and Morgan aren't they ?
Can the UK negotiate trade deals with other other countries whilst legally being part of a trading bloc that already has trading agreements ? or do we have to legally cease to a member of that bloc before we can start negotiating ? IYSWIM

[G-Unit]

It reads as if we could do business with Australia anyway, in the EU or not.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exporting-to-australia/exporting-to-australia