On 23/05/2017 13:43, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
James Harris wrote:
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.

Rather obviously if part of a club. You can't reasonably expect to have
one law for you, and different for the rest of the club.

The club's rules have been made up over time. It does NOT need to be a
customs union (which is what prevents members from setting their own
tariffs). But it chooses to be that. Why? Because it wants to become a
superstate. That is its purpose, and has been since its inception with
the Treaty of Rome. "We want to do everything a state would do." Trade
is primarily a sweetener to keep members from jumping ship, a means of
saying: you cannot have X unless you accept various forms of Y. And the
forms of Y are geared to the goal of political union.


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.

Because we were part of a club. Where things are done for all - not just
some.

Well, while that's true it is also true that the tariff wall is intended
to be protectionist: "We will protect internal businesses against
competition from without, even if it makes the cost of living greater
than it should be and encourages inefficient firms to remain inefficient."


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

All this talk of tariffs is a bit of a red herring.

Not to exporters!

As it's services we
make far more out of - not goods.

Agreed. And the EU doesn't have a complete single market in services.
(It's possible that the much-vaunted "passports" are needed because the
single market in services is incomplete - something I've not yet got to
the bottom of. Maybe someone can advise.)


--
James Harris