Ffs its Christmas you’re making political jokes when you should be at Church singing Shark the Herald Angel’s sing…
3 Likes
Everyone knows that fish pun, it’s quite commonplaice.
3 Likes
These puns are making me apo-PLEC-tic.
You guys are just angling for likes.
I haddock clue fishing was going to be important.
2 Likes
What was the net value?
2 Likes
I like the line your questions are taking.
2 Likes
For the love of cod, will you please stop trawling and trying to catch me?
2 Likes
Atrout time you all abaited this line…I’ve haddock it up to here. 
2 Likes
Only a week before we turbot to the door.
1 Like
Stop carping.
1 Like
I’d like to get back to serious fish shoes if that’s okay.
Genuine question. If we have 0% deals with non-EU states and a 0% deal with the EU, does that mean that UK firms can effectively become middlemen resellers?
I suspect the legal text will prohibit it but in reality lots of firms will do it and get away with it
I think they’re going to have to be bang on it. Just take aluminium as an example. EU is not happy with the low rates the Chinese are flogging it for. There was talk of a 48% tariff at one point, presumably of primary benefit to the Dutch and Norwegians, the only major aluminium exporters tied to the EU in some way (Norway has a looser relationship).
It’s the metal of choice for a great deal of manufacturing. The EU will be able to stop any import of raw materials, but unless there is something specifically forbidding it in those 2000 pages, any UK manufacturer can benefit from lower input costs while selling the completed good to the EU tariff free.
I can’t believe they actually went for this deal.
I’m sure there will be - I seem to remember a great deal of fuss about car manufacture and imported components
Even if we can’t sell to the EU, we can still buy raw materials on the world market and sell finished goods back to the world market.
Time for a quick poll.
Is there any member state of the EU except Germany that will have a stronger trading position than the UK in January 2021?
- Yes
- No
- Don’t know
0 voters
I must say I do find your stubborn optimism hilarious, desperately trying to pretend that the shit sandwich Johnson has served up is caviar. A shit sandwich, even with a bit of jam in it is still a shit sandwich. Not caviar.
Oi. That is already the two word review for the Spinal Tap album, “Shark Sandwich”.
I’m also not letting Captain Articulate off with a “shit sandwich” dismissive flip.
I am genuinely fucking surprised this is on the table in the form it is. I am on record as expecting no deal, although I have also noted that the EU do make deals at the last minute.
I won’t bore you. I’ve already said why I think it’s good.
Why do you think it’s bad?
Ok, I’ll have a go. This is what Johnson has accomplished. In the real world.
As a member of the EU we could circulate all areas of our economy,(capital, goods, services, labour, transport) freely and frictionless in the markets of 27 other sovereign states. This ends on January 1st. Our trade with all non EU countries also happens on worse terms than we now enjoy. Instead, for goods and foods to the EU:
We can trade our goods and foods without tariffs as long as we follow agreed standards,( which are basically EU standards), when/if we deviate, WTO tariffs and sales quantity restrictions are imposed on parts or all of the trade deal.
We can no longer trade our goods and foods without friction. From January 1st our goods and foods will require a mountain of paperwork, certificate of origin, certificate of conformance, certificate of health etc etc issued by a competent and approved health authority. We will have to fill out customs documents and get them cleared by customs. Even Michael Gove has admitted that UK businesses will have to fill out an additional 210 million customs documents and get them cleared by customs at a yearly cost of 7.2 billion, which will increase the price and cost of our goods, making them less attractive. Our fishermen will have to provide a certificate of health for each and every catch of every boat. The vast majority of fish caught by the UK fishing industry is sold in the EU.
Regarding labour to the EU. UK citizens can no longer go to the EU and take a job there without first applying for a work visa and a residence visa. We have a 90 day waiver for short holidays, but this doesn’t give you permission to enter the EU. It only means you can present yourself at the border without visa but you have to provide proof of having sufficient means for your stay, evidence of where you are staying and a return ticket. And you can’t do anything other than holidaying. For all other purposes you will need a visa.
Regarding transport to the EU: UK airliners can only deliver point to point flights between the UK and the EU, (eg London-Paris-London). They can no longer provide continuation flights,(eg London-Paris-Berlin-London) and can no longer fly through EU airspace to a non-EU destination with a stop over in the EU.
Our truck drivers can drive a freight to the EU, can pick up and deliver two new loads there, and then have to return home - with or without freight.
For trade with non-EU countries:
Customs controls and certification requirements apply; Tariffs and quotas apply, unless we have a trade deal with them that reduces or lifts them.Complex services are not covered by any FTA. The Free Trade Agreements we do ourselves will all be worse than the EU FTAs. In the real world size matters. Our market is much much smaller than the EU market so our trade deals will inevitably be much worse. A perfect example of this is the bone headed and ideological decision of Johnson and Hancock to snub the EU offer to join the EU consortium to purchase the Pfizers covid vaccine. The EU and the UK each ordered 40 million doses, our 40 million doses cost 900 million more than the EU’s.
Our own treasury says that our Canadian FTA means that our economy grows between 4.9% and 6.7% less over fifteen years, than it would have had we remained in the EU and traded with Canada under the EU’s trade deal with Canada.
Or take our UK-Japan trade deal. Again, according to our treasury the EU-Japan trade deal was worth 2.2% of the UK GDP. The new UK-Japan trade deal is worth 0.7% of the UK GDP. These norms will apply to all the trade deals we have already done, and will do in the future.
So tell me - what exactly have we won here?
The whole thing can be summed up by the two press conferences made on Friday evening.
Ursula von der Layen - intelligent calm, dignified, elegant and magnaminous.
Johnson - sandwiched between two massive Union Jacks, fist pumping, self congratulating, “we have won the war”, reminiscent of a rally in 1930s Germany. Started with a massive lie and went downhill from there. But you just lap it up, don’t you.
2 Likes