The extremely worthy TPA has a nifty new promo for their new book that dares to think the unthinkable…
The book, Ten Years On, is available to order free here.
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Ten Years On… without the EUNovember 18th, 2009 |
 12 comments to Ten Years On… without the EU |
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Impressive. I have a copy.
Just a pity for anyone who works in manufacturing, particularly the motor industry. If you were running, say Honda, which would you rather do manufacture in the UK and export 80% of your production against a tariff barrier or manufacture in Spain and export 20% to the UK against a tariff? Within ten years, that’s two model cycles, it’s all gone. That is, of course, if you don’t want a Norwegian type free trade deal – you pay the same subscription, pass the same laws but don’t get any say in any of it. Good plan!
This is just like the hard left blogs that decry the ills of capitalism but don’t dwell too much on the alternatives.
The alternatives is not that hard to see Forlornehope… unilateral trade liberalisation.
If the EU wants to keep British products out with tariff barriers, then Britain needs to trade with other parts of the world instead, without the deadening hand of Brussels interfering. Also we have enough problems dealing with home grown regulatory statists, we will do better to have just them to deal with rather than an additional remote tier in Europe. Britain has always been a global trading nation and we need to get the state out of the way so businesses can focus on that once again. The world is bigger than Europe.
The economic future of the world is not in Europe, it is in Asia, and that is where the smarter UK businesses need to be involved economically.
Forlornehope
Why would the UK have to negotiate the same terms as Norway to trade with other EU member states? The population of the UK is twelve times that of Norway; the economy is almost nine times as big. Do you not think a market that size might have a bit more negotiating power?
Outside the EU, Britain would still be a big customer for EU businesses which gives us leverage to agree a low tariff or no tariff trade agreement. As Lee Rotherham points out in his book, WTO rules would rule out any trade war. Britain’s liberation from the EU would also encourage countries such as Norway to seek a better deal or establish it de-facto by using the UK as middle-man.
“The economic future of the world is not in Europe, it is in Asia, and that is where the smarter UK businesses need to be involved economically.”
The premise is reasonable, but how would that be done, Perry?
The UK is so remote from Asia, the costs of doing business are higher in the UK, and the once proud educational systems of Scotland & England are now simply not competitive with those of Asia. British capital might be able to find a home employing Asian workers in Asia — but that will do little for the denizens of Old Blighty.
Then there still is a certain amount of bad feeling in Asia over the last time that the Brits decided to deal with a balance-of-trade problem with China by fighting two wars to open China to imports of British-managed opium.
Surely a British solution has to start with developing competitive advantages in the UK itself — real education, sensible regulation, low taxes, high rewards for innovation. Then sell the products anywhere in the world, be it Europe or Asia.
I ordered mine a couple of weeks ago. no sign of it yet.
I finished reading my copy of the train tonight, is quite impressive but a bit optimistic (as if Cameron and co would have the balls to take such a radical option!)
How come no-one mentioned this book before?
As for trading blocs, doesn’t Switzerland survive despite being ‘outside’ the Union, even though it’s in the middle of Europe? And wouldn’t the English language go on conquering Europe, whatever England does politically, because trade with America is vitally important?
I take back my previous comment – the book just arrived today!
The ad does mention that the cost of the regulations is overwhelmingly the biggest cost – but it does this too quickly.
Someone who does not know the cost of the regulations in advance is most likely going to think they cost about as much as the CAP or the CFP (farming and fishing policies) – rather than vastly more.
Just a note: the link in the post seems to be broken; it appended Samizdata’s domain name to the beginning of the URL it’s supposed to point to.