In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

But those countries being part of the EU can't negotiate a deal with
us individually. Which is rather obvious because once our goods arrive
at an EU country, they would then be within the EU and subject to free
movement.

It's never going to be a problem for us to import from a country.

If you want to be meek about it, yes you can make it easy for Brits to
buy Passats by setting a 0% post-brexit import duty on cars from the EU
(same as now).

Entirely down to the UK.

Or if you want to play a little hard-ball, you charge the same duty as
for an Accord (10% since they're not made in Swindon), You now have VW
and Renault's attention. Then you do the same for white goods and get
Bosch and Ariston's attention ... soon "they" want a deal with us, as
much as we want a deal with them, rather than us letting them not need
one.

Of course. Tariffs in each direction are inevitable. So the UK will make a
new deal with the EU, if they want to.

What is more to the point is how important that trade is to each unit.
Trade with the EU is a far smaller percentage of its total trade than it
is with the UK. So can you really see the likes of Germany and France
giving in to this sort of blackmail easily? What do you think the average
German or Frenchman would say if the EU keeled over to the UK?

--
*People want trepanners like they want a hole in the head*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.