On 19/05/2017 11:13, James Harris wrote:
On 19/05/2017 00:51, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
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?

Countries which don't produce steel will not care as much - if at all -
as those who do. And the EU works as a collective.

In fact, if they consume steel some countries might see dumping as
welcome. Even if not officially, they can still put bureaucratic blocks
in the way.

With its voluminous rulebooks and focus on red tape the EU is an ideal
organ for preventing things happening. It could hardly be better.


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.

No. I was saying that outside the EU we would be able to choose whether
to protect the steel industry or not. We would not have to go to
Brussels or Strasbourg to try to persuade them to do what's good for
British people and British jobs. We could do that ourselves.

Would it be worth it? Maybe. America slapped on very large tariffs of
100% to 150% (possibly temporarily). We were not allowed to. Think about
that. The elected British government was _not allowed_ to do what it
thought best for Brits, because EU rules take precedence over UK ministers.

So how does this work with devolution?

Most of the steel was in Wales are they going to be allowed to slap on a
tariff or will they be overruled by the English,Irish and Scots who
happen to be the other members of the UK "free trade area"

Maybe its best to just breakup the UK into it separate countries and
then do the same for the regions and just keep going until there is
nothing left.