Current Affairs EU In or Out

[peteblue]

The UK already trades with the rest of the world as does the EU and have many many Free Trade Agreements with a large chunk of the world. It is not trade deals that are stopping the UK from increasing its share of world trade, but what they sell. With having such a small manufacturing base, that is very limited and specialised it e.g Rolls Royce, pharmaceuticals, and certain other high spec machines there is a limited market for those goods. Which are also in competition with German, America and China.

The UK already trades with the world including the commonwealth. For example a £9 billion trade deal with India and Free Trade Agreements with Commonwealth countries.

"It’s sometimes suggested that the EU’s trade deals with other countries don’t benefit the UK. But the UK’s exports to Commonwealth countries have been increasing at over 10% a year – with increases (over two years) of 33% to India, 31% to South Africa, 30% to Australia and 18% to Canada. In fact, since 2004, British exports to India are up 143%. Needless to say, this increase in trade with the Commonwealth (while an EU member) must have created or maintained many British jobs.

Is it possible that after leaving the EU, the UK could negotiate trade deals with Commonwealth countries more quickly, or deals which are even more favourable to the UK? First of all, as noted above, the EU already has agreed trade deals with 64% of Commonwealth countries, and is negotiating with another 26%. Some of the latter negotiations are likely to be completed by the time that ‘Brexit’ took place".

"Below is a list showcasing 15 of United Kingdom’s top import partners, countries that imported the most UK shipments by dollar value during 2015. Also shown is each import country’s percentage of total UK exports.

1. United States: US$66.5 billion (14.5% of total UK exports)
2. Germany: $46.4 billion (10.1%)
3. Switzerland: $32.2 billion (7%)
4. China: $27.4 billion (5.9%)
5. France: $27 billion (5.9%)
6. Netherlands: $26.6 billion (5.8%)
7. Ireland: $25.5 billion (5.5%)
8. Belgium: $17.8 billion (3.9%)
9. Spain: $13.1 billion (2.8%)
10. Italy: $12.9 billion (2.8%)
11. United Arab Emirates: $10.3 billion (2.2%)
12. Hong Kong: $9.6 billion (2.1%)
13. South Korea: $7 billion (1.5%)
14. Saudi Arabia: $6.7 billion (1.5%)
15. Sweden: $6.6 billion (1.4%)

Almost three-quarters (72.9%) of UK exports in 2015 were delivered to the above 15 trade partners.

Among these top trade partners, UK imports to China rose in value at the fastest pace from 2011 to 2015 with a 94.2% gain.

In second place were South Korean importers, which grew their imports from the UK by 72.9%.

Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates boosted their imports purchases by 36% and 23.5%, respectively.

America’s imports from the UK increased by 5.7% over the 5-year period".

Edit. Please don't take this as having a go at you. I appreciate that you have a lot to say and we can all learn from each others point of view and understand things better with that.

I didnt think you were 'having a go' as all throughout this thread I've been saying that our RoW export trade is already greater than that to the EU and with a trade surplus to boot.........

 

[neil999]

i havent got a clue about any of this trade stuff your all going on about

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The lack of a UK industrial strategy will always hinder trade. The over reliance on the City of London, lending and borrowing and consumption to boost the economy will hinder the UK's ability to take advantage of any trade deal.

The case of Graphene is a case in point. Invented in Manchester but now developed in China due to the lack of funding from the UK financial sector. No factory was financed by UK money to take advantage of this product.

China-made graphene bulb to debut in UK

On the topic of commercialisation of graphene research, this might be of interest

http://www.nesta.org.uk/node/21461

It doesn't help that the graphene itself can't be patented as it's a naturally occurring material, and so requires manufacturers to actually do stuff with it.

There's a nice interview here from one of the team at Manchester on the challenges involved in the commercialisation of it.

http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3950

It's probably fair to say that we're still at a very early stage in the graphene journey however.

 

[peteblue]

The lack of a UK industrial strategy will always hinder trade. The over reliance on the City of London, lending and borrowing and consumption to boost the economy will hinder the UK's ability to take advantage of any trade deal.

The case of Graphene is a case in point. Invented in Manchester but now developed in China due to the lack of funding from the UK financial sector. No factory was financed by UK money to take advantage of this product.

China-made graphene bulb to debut in UK

It's always been the case unfortunately........many British inventions have been commercialised by other countries....

 

[Bruce Wayne]

A nice reminder here - https://theconversation.com/hard-ev...low-immigration-voted-mainly-for-brexit-62138

Or as we all like a graph

 

[hullefc]

It's always been the case unfortunately........many British inventions have been commercialised by other countries....

Isn't that the crux of the matter. The City of London is awash with money but doesn't lend to industry because more money can be made, in the short term, by lending to people to buy property and fund consumption. As the £375 billion of Quantative Easing showed. Next to nothing went to industry but did go to finance the purchase of property, shares and commodities.

Maybe the horse has already bolted concerning re-industrialising the UK due to not having an industrial strategy, that links finance with industry, similar to what happens in Germany.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Isn't that the crux of the matter. The City of London is awash with money but doesn't lend to industry because more money can be made, in the short term, by lending to people to buy property and fund consumption. As the £375 billion of Quantative Easing showed. Next to nothing went to industry but did go to finance the purchase of property, shares and commodities.

Maybe the horse has already bolted concerning re-industrialising the UK due to not having an industrial strategy, that links finance with industry, similar to what happens in Germany.

That may not be entirely true. A major factor in the relative health of the London based start-up scene is due to the availability of finance via the City. I'm not sure it's finance that's the issue with Graphene. Perhaps part of the problem is that many bright academics leave to develop their own start-up, and I suspect as the majority of these are knowledge based entrepreneurs, the costs of growing a venture are perhaps a bit lower.

For instance, I know the guys behind the Entrepreneur First accelerator really well, and their thing is to take academics and build businesses out of their knowledge. As you can imagine, they do a whole lot in tech, but this is primarily in areas such as AI and quantum computing. They have nothing at all to do with graphene.

That isn't to say that bigger companies aren't interested, and the likes of BAe, Dyson and Rolls Royce are all working on graphene based solutions, but it's still very early on so the fruits of that labour haven't materialised yet.

Manchester have built a £61m facility to help with the commercialisation though, so I'd just say that perhaps patience is required here.

http://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/collaborate/national-graphene-institute/

 

[Joey66]

Euro in mealt down in Italy on the verge of bankruptcy Spain, and Portugal ready to follow it looks like we are leaving a sinking ship, jumping off borard just in time IMO!

 

[peteblue]

Euro in mealt down in Italy on the verge of bankruptcy Spain, and Portugal ready to follow it looks like we are leaving a sinking ship, jumping off borard just in time IMO!

Brexit makes the prospect of Britain striking a trade deal with China more likely, trade officials from both countries have said.

Xing Houyuan, an official at the state-backed Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said China was being frustrated by the EU.

But now Britain has left, he said the 'situation in Western Europe will push China and the UK to make a trade treaty,' he told the state-owned China Daily newspaper.

And British trade minister Lord Price, a former boss of Waitrose, is currently in Hong Kong where he said the future is 'optimistic' about future trade deals with 'new trading markets' in the East.

China's Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang also gave a positive outlook, telling China Daily that Brexit will 'create more chances in different fields for new investment'.

The announcements came on the day Britain posted its best manufacturing figures in five years.

 

[Toffeelover]

A nice reminder here - https://theconversation.com/hard-ev...low-immigration-voted-mainly-for-brexit-62138

Or as we all like a graph

Probably because they could see there was no more room or money.

Were you aware that quite a number of councils have said no to the government about accepting more refugees because of lack of housing, money and the strain on services?

 

[Toffeelover]

Euro in mealt down in Italy on the verge of bankruptcy Spain, and Portugal ready to follow it looks like we are leaving a sinking ship, jumping off borard just in time IMO!

Where was that news Joey?

Interesting little tit bit about Nato. Th uk, Poland, Estonia and Greece have all met the target of 25 of GDP to meet the needs of NATO. No other European country has done so not even the mighty rich Germans! IN addition curiously the Luftwaffe has 109 Typhoons but only just over 40 are operational!

 

[Toffeelover]

Brexit makes the prospect of Britain striking a trade deal with China more likely, trade officials from both countries have said.

Xing Houyuan, an official at the state-backed Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said China was being frustrated by the EU.

But now Britain has left, he said the 'situation in Western Europe will push China and the UK to make a trade treaty,' he told the state-owned China Daily newspaper.

And British trade minister Lord Price, a former boss of Waitrose, is currently in Hong Kong where he said the future is 'optimistic' about future trade deals with 'new trading markets' in the East.

China's Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang also gave a positive outlook, telling China Daily that Brexit will 'create more chances in different fields for new investment'.

The announcements came on the day Britain posted its best manufacturing figures in five years.

We are also being told by The US and others to joinTPP - Trans Pacific Partnership but it will a two or more years.

 

[hullefc]

That may not be entirely true. A major factor in the relative health of the London based start-up scene is due to the availability of finance via the City. I'm not sure it's finance that's the issue with Graphene. Perhaps part of the problem is that many bright academics leave to develop their own start-up, and I suspect as the majority of these are knowledge based entrepreneurs, the costs of growing a venture are perhaps a bit lower.

For instance, I know the guys behind the Entrepreneur First accelerator really well, and their thing is to take academics and build businesses out of their knowledge. As you can imagine, they do a whole lot in tech, but this is primarily in areas such as AI and quantum computing. They have nothing at all to do with graphene.

That isn't to say that bigger companies aren't interested, and the likes of BAe, Dyson and Rolls Royce are all working on graphene based solutions, but it's still very early on so the fruits of that labour haven't materialised yet.

Manchester have built a £61m facility to help with the commercialisation though, so I'd just say that perhaps patience is required here.

http://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/collaborate/national-graphene-institute/

From that information the funding for Graphene research in Manchester comes not from the CIty but,

FUNDING
Investment in graphene
Funding for the NGI includes £38m from the Government, as part of £50m allocated for graphene research. The remaining £23m was awarded to the University by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The NGI will operate as a 'hub and spoke' model, working with other UK institutions involved in graphene research.

Individual research projects are funded by a number of organisations, including EPSRC, theLeverhulme Trust, BBSRC, the European Commission (EC) and its European Research Council (ERC) and The Royal Society".

Patience is certainly required and the £1 billion Chinese investment in Manchester shows they are in for the long term. As far as financing industries goes there is maybe a regional dimension to where City funds go.

 

[Joey66]

Where was that news Joey?

Interesting little tit bit about Nato. Th uk, Poland, Estonia and Greece have all met the target of 25 of GDP to meet the needs of NATO. No other European country has done so not even the mighty rich Germans! IN addition curiously the Luftwaffe has 109 Typhoons but only just over 40 are operational!

On LBC this am saying ATM Brexit has pushed our exports positively upwards worldwide, and an EU economist came on to say Italy is the next Greece its spent the bail out package from Germany the Euro is in meltdown- it's LBC breakfast show quite a balanced telephone in some were complaining Brexit was bad majority saying it was causing a boom in manufacturing exports!

 

[hullefc]

A nice reminder here - https://theconversation.com/hard-ev...low-immigration-voted-mainly-for-brexit-62138

Or as we all like a graph

"So where migrants were not present, it appears they were held partly to blame for the all-too-real, but much deeper-seated, economic difficulties experienced by locals".

A proviso to that is that increased number of migrants were present in areas that voted to leave. It also show how bad austerity has been for a large chunk of the population, so that a very small increase in immigration has such an effect, when resources are being squeezed. Only 33% said they voted leave due to immigration.

There is inadequate funding for the population that is now in the UK. Funding is based on the 2011 census figures - even though councils said there were many that didn't fill in their forms. The population was put down as an estimate of 63.1 million with population estimate in June 2015 at 65 million. That means there are 2 million more people - probably more - in the UK but no increase in funding, but an increase in needs of services, which leads to even more squeeze on resources. So it is not surprising that people will 'blame' immigration. What is quite revealing is that only 33% voted leave due to immigration.