In article ,
James Harris wrote:
I keep on asking just which did anything in the way of 'limiting'. And so
far have had very little concrete information.

OK. Here are some examples.

We wanted to protect our steel industry from Chinese dumping. But under
EU rules we had to try to persuade them to impose tariffs. They would
only do so if they thought it was good for the average across the EU28.

The Chinese dumping steel is good for just what EU country? Germany?
Italy?

To protect farmers the EU last year put up tariffs against oranges. We
don't grow oranges in the UK so it helped us not at all. All it did was
put up the prices consumers have to pay in the shops.

OK. So the EU can't do anything to protect industries in other EU
countries. But you expect it to protect UK steel.

The EU decided that it should act as a country and have its own foreign
policy. So it appointed a "high representative" of itself - initially
Cathy Ashton, now Federica Mogherini.

And?

Over-regulation is a dream for big companies as it helps them defeat
smaller competitors. Brussels is a lobbyists paradise but it stifles
competition.

And us leaving will help that in just what way? Will that stop the EU
regulating companies? But odd that Germany seems to do OK with all that
regulation.

The EU is large but it is deathly _slow_ at making trade deals. It has
missed growing parts of the world. We have missed their growth because
we have not been allowed to cut our own deals. We are already poorer
than we should be as a result. Why is it slow? Two reasons: (1) It is a
committee of 28 nations and tries to suit them all. (2) Those who do the
negotiation are indolent and unaccountable. If they don't do a good job
they are still paid, they still eat and drink well, they know they are
accumulating gold-plated pensions, and they know that they will not be
held to account by the public.

Right. So now we are free to make deals with all those other countries.
But in the process cut ourselves off from the largest single market in the
world. So let's hear about those countries large enough to replace that
lost trade in goods and services.

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*Why do the two "sanction"s (noun and verb) mean opposites?*

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