On 23/05/2017 00:30, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
James Harris wrote:
Try something else as we can get bananas at zero rate from lots of
countries.

I don't know the rate for bananas but here's a good alternative. Per
IDS, last year the EU approximately trebled the tariff on oranges from
3% to 16% to protect Spanish producers. But that, of course, means that
we all have to pay more in the shops.

I don't quite get it. One moment, Brexiteers are complaining the EU took
no action to prevent China selling steel so as to undercut the UK makers.

That's not quite my complaint. Mine is that EU membership prevents the
government from taking action to protect key industries. Whether they
should or not is debatable. But they simply don't have that option while
in the EU. They can only ask the EU to do it.

But with oranges, it's ok. But of course we don't grow oranges.

Why would we want to be behind a tariff wall for things we don't
produce? It makes no sense. All it does is increase the costs of imports
without helping any of our people or businesses.

(Once free again, we might keep some tariffs to use for bargaining - but
that's getting a bit off topic.)


--
James Harris