Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Politics
Original poster

If UK left EU, then why couldn't UK...

33 replies

lljkk · 19/02/2016 20:09

just pay the (?) 10% non-EU tarriff for all non-EU imports to EU.
No need to pay a massive annual fee for access to common market & swallow rules of free movement of labour with that, just pay the tarriff for importers to EU to ease the UK exporter-to-EU cost burden.

As for being nice to EU-non-UK citizens currently living in UK: UK could grant (?) 3 yr work permits to well-behaved EU citizens already here 6+ months, gives them time to get ILR at end of that if they want. New EU applicants to work in UK would be granted whatever time period work permits at UK govt. discretion.

British citizens living elsewhere in EU would have to get local equivalent to leave-to-remain like non EU citizens do within rest of EU.

What I mean is, could EU stop Britain from having post-Brexit policies that looked like that? And would that all work out reasonably cost-effective compared to other ways to make access to EU market affordable?

OP posts:
niceguy2 · 20/02/2016 08:48

...just pay the (?) 10% non-EU tarriff for all non-EU imports to EU.

Because that 10% would probably make our current payments seem like chump change in comparison. I don't think people realise just how much business we do with the EU countries. In 2014, 44% of our exports were to EU countries. 10% of that....... source

Plus as also pointed out, we'd still need to comply with all EU safety standards and policies in order to sell to them. Rules & regulations that we'd no longer be able to help shape.

There was an interesting article I read recently where Norway almost had an important industry of theirs decimated by the wave of an EU pen because of a sudden planned change to the law. In the end it was France who also objected and the rule was killed. We'd end up in a similar position.

And the problem with the whole immigration paranoia is more the press than facts. If you look at the facts objectively, overall immigration has been good for the economy. Immigrants are less likely to commit crime than locals. Less likely to claim benefits.

But we don't hear that. All we hear is story after story of Abdul coming over on a dinghy with his family of 14, getting a £1m mansion on the taxpayers dime, stealing a job from Fred the hardworker because he's willing to work 80 hours a week on less than minimum wage. At the same time he's claiming benefits, demanding Sharia law and committing violent crime. And so many seem to think it's all true as well.

Original poster
lljkk · 19/02/2016 20:24

(Just looking up the 4 fundamental freedoms of EU...)

Is free movement of capital the big hangup, maybe? UK govt can allow that in from EU with no trade barrier. UK govt could afford to subsidise against EU tarriffs on non-EU services or goods... but investment from UK into EU ... would that be taxed in some way beyond UK budget to subsidise, is that what EU does right now, somehow taxes outside-EU capital?

OP posts:
cdtaylornats · 19/02/2016 20:22

I'm not against the EU because of immigration, I'm against it because its a dumping ground for failed politicians. I also don't like the fact it is a money pit, one of the reforms I would want is an end to shuttling back and forwards between Brussels and Strasbourg.

Original poster
lljkk · 19/02/2016 20:21

Agree, complying with regs is inevitable.... but only for those who export to EU. For those who never export from UK, they'd only have to comply with whatever UK regs might be about manuf./safety/product standards ...or to be commercially viable with whatever standard was needed to make their products compatible with stuff manuf. elsewhere (thinking technology especially).

We discussed at work today the £2k to become UK citizen. My entire office is non-EU born people.... not sure how many have Brit citizenship.

OP posts:
WidowWadman · 19/02/2016 20:16

But it's not just the annual fee for access, in order to sell goods to EU member states they have to comply with EU regs, e.g. CE marking, no matter what, but would lose a seat at the table that agrees those regs.

Not even going into your waffle about immigration. You'd pull the rug under a lot of people's feet, who may simply not easily be able to find the money for a citizenship application they otherwise wouldn't need.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 19/02/2016 20:16

Nice to have some threads about practical issues of the EU thing, rather than in/out threads, thanks OP.

I have no clue though Grin. Would love to read others opinions.

Original poster
lljkk · 19/02/2016 20:14

fwiw I am definitely voting STAY, myself. And I am a nonEU immigrant.... who worked for EU until recently(!)

But I just wondered about logical arguments why the plan I outlined above would work badly. If we have to leave EU because people really are that anti-immigrant it seems like the above is only way to get Out Voters what they want. Isn't it?

OP posts:
Quoteunquote · 19/02/2016 20:12

We are totally fucked if we leave the EU.

We lose so much funding and cooperation it will devastate us.