I’m sure that I would enjoy a few pints with you. I appreciate that the commonwealth could not make up the difference if we suddenly lost sales to the EU, but trade with the EU will not suddenly stop. Supply chains are far too complicated for that to happen.The U.K. is also in a good position to be creative based on the fact that the EU sells a great deal more to us than we do to them. The U.K. government could support exporters to the EU by covering any export tariffs for them using the larger import tariffs collected from EU imports. I know the rates will be different for different products but the trade imbalance is so great that at worst we would break even. I’ve never seen improved links to the commonwealth as a replacement for the EU but as an additional market that we can help formulate and improve.....
I don't get this argument Pete. Tesco sell far more to me than I do to them, but that doesn't mean I have a great deal of power in that relationship. Quite the opposite in fact. Ask your farming buddy how we would feel about OPEC playing silly buggers with oil prices and the power relationship between Britain and them because we buy most of our oil from abroad.
With regards to supply chains. Yes, they are complicated, and they're also heavily interconnected, which is why the EU has been so beneficial because they make that connectivity of both supply chains and human capital so straightforward. I'm not sure Brexiters, and with respect yourself too, get that as all you ever hear about are trade deals and tariffs, when so much of the world today relies on things that usually aren't included in tariffs.
Indeed, the various no deal emergency procedures to keep planes flying, nuclear material moving, criminal data available and so on are all prime examples of non-tariff barriers that are hugely important to a global society. Given the fool Johnson made of himself when trying to bluster his way through the GATT document with Andrew Neil, do you honestly believe he has the first clue about these things?
