World Trade Organisation Rules

Alan_Brown

Rinoa wrote: »

He seems very angry at the moment. Maybe a short break will be beneficial. Hope he's back soon, too valuable a poster to lose.

I think so too and I was shocked at the way he was acting as he has always been a really nice guy.

I thought it was a little excessive for him to be banned based on his contributions to this thread, so I had a little peep at his posting history. He seems to have been calling everyone idiots all over the boards. I then discovered a post he made on the chat thread and he mentioned finding a lump and being fearful that he had cancer.

I think we can see where the emotion is coming from and I hope that everything is OK and it's just a scare, not a reality. A break would be good though as brexit would seem to be the least of his worries.

wotsthat

Rinoa wrote: »

Well, the £9Bn tariffs on imports from the EU is about the same per person as we currently pay to the EU for membership. About £150 p.a.

Not sure many will notice.

Not so many days ago that money was going to the NHS, then it wasn't and now we've got to pay more for stuff instead?

There won't be £9bn of tariffs anyway because if we go the WTO route imports and exports will fall dramatically. It's not an option - I hope anyone that thinks so is kept a long long way from the negotiating table.

It's stupid from a manufactured point of view and plain suicidal from a services point of view.

Rinoa

wotsthat wrote: »

Not so many days ago that money was going to the NHS, then it wasn't and now we've got to pay more for stuff instead?

There won't be £9bn of tariffs anyway because if we go the WTO route imports and exports will fall dramatically. It's not an option - I hope anyone that thinks so is kept a long long way from the negotiating table.

It's stupid from a manufactured point of view and plain suicidal from a services point of view.

Not sure exports and imports will fall that much. We sell more on WTO terms than EU terms right now.

Financial services are very important. But we're the ones with the expertise. It's a bit like us saying we'll stop buying Mercs and BMW and make our own cars instead. Well yeah, but how long would it take to design and build cars equal to BMW and Merc quality.

Alan_Brown

Hopefully we'll see a rebalancing of the economy so that not just the financial sector and London get all the jobs and money....

wotsthat

Rinoa wrote: »

Not sure exports and imports will fall that much. We sell more on WTO terms than EU terms right now.

Financial services are very important. But we're the ones with the expertise. It's a bit like us saying we'll stop buying Mercs and BMW and make our own cars instead. Well yeah, but how long would it take to design and build cars equal to BMW and Merc quality.

If we end up on WTO terms with the EU it really doesn't matter how clever we think we are or how much more the EU needs us. It will be to the detriment of both parties and especially worrying for the service sector.

Anyone getting the shaft will be little consoled to hear a car worker in Germany got the shaft too but people can be strange.

wotsthat

Alan_Brown wrote: »

Hopefully we'll see a rebalancing of the economy so that not just the financial sector and London get all the jobs and money....

I'll add 'hopefully' to the plan along with 'would', 'could', 'maybe' and 'wish'.

rubuhoeikanaika

Rinoa wrote: »

Financial services are very important. But we're the ones with the expertise. It's a bit like us saying we'll stop buying Mercs and BMW and make our own cars instead. Well yeah, but how long would it take to design and build cars equal to BMW and Merc quality.

Perhaps. But financial services doesn't rely on big car plants or whatever, and the people/expertise involved tend to be far more mobile than your average factory worker. That expertise could literally get up and get on a train to Frankfurt, and stay there.

If we imported a load of German engineers and a manufacturing plant, we could have BMW/Merc quality cars pretty quickly I reckon.

HiToAll

wotsthat wrote: »

Not so many days ago that money was going to the NHS, then it wasn't and now we've got to pay more for stuff instead?

There won't be £9bn of tariffs anyway because if we go the WTO route imports and exports will fall dramatically. It's not an option - I hope anyone that thinks so is kept a long long way from the negotiating table.

It's stupid from a manufactured point of view and plain suicidal from a services point of view.

I believe Mr Camerons thoughts on this have just been made quite clear, that you would have to live not far from Dagenham to believe this is a good idea.

wotsthat

HiToAll wrote: »

I believe Mr Camerons thoughts on this have just been made quite clear, that you would have to live not far from Dagenham to believe this is a good idea.

Cameron won't be involved in the negotiations and I doubt he'll be involved in the strategy formulation either. His thoughts are now close to irrelevant.

I suspect plans for a massive fudge might be progressing though.

buglawton

Rinoa wrote: »

Well, the £9Bn tariffs on imports from the EU is about the same per person as we currently pay to the EU for membership. About £150 p.a.

Not sure many will notice.

Remember, import tariffs are optional and their real purpose is as a quid pro quo device to encourage our WTO or other customer countries to play nice with us, or to protect/porkbarrel our own weak sectors.

VAT & duties can be played with so the consumer need not feel too much pain.

Also worth noting that the 5% or 10%, whatever, import duty is usually on the wholesale, not retail price for goods destined for our shops & car showrooms.