On 18/06/16 10:16, Adrian wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jun 2016 18:36:09 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

It's also why we separate trade deals are utterly pointless while
we're in the EU - because if the UK applied zero duty to US goods in
a category, but Germany didn't, we could buy the same things through
Germany and not pay the duty.

I have read the above three times, and am still scratching my head.

Sorry. You're right. What I meant to say was that if the UK applied
duty,
but Germany didn't.

Why on earth would we?

Let's say that the UK wanted to put a 20% duty on steel imported from
China.


Why? We don't have a steel industry left to protect, thanks to the
Wonderful EU.

But Germany didn't. But we can import steel from Germany without any duty.


Well if we were trying to protect our own steel industry, we would of
course put 20% on German steel as well.

So... all that's happened is that the same steel has come to the UK, but
the UK hasn't received any of that duty on it. Because the buyer's bought
it from Germany.


Exactly, Which is why we have to leave the EU.



--
"In our post-modern world, climate science is not powerful because it is
true: it is true because it is powerful."

Lucas Bergkamp