Re: @ Dan 55
@Codejunky
I dismissed his comment on the basis that we are not some pariah in the world and amusingly we might end up with a trade deal with China before the EU manages it. The last line of my comment being the important one- "And if we are so over-reliant on such a failing and barely still standing trading block then we obviously need to move away dont we.". Since then I have been responding to interpretations of my comment.
So you was being dimissive of the idea that just turning up in say China and selling widgets is not going to happen straight away.
But this is where I am chasing interpretations. I am talking about world trade and your talking about speaking Chinese. My point is we dont need a trade block to negotiate in the world nor the trade-off that is the EU. You can tell me its not simple and I agree. But it doesnt change anything.
As I said we I agree we do not need a trade block, I never brought that up in our coversation at all though you did. In fact I have pretty much reffered to companies themselves as seperate business entities. Trade deals sort tariffs, companies will have to do the rest themselves.
I was not just talking about speaking Chinese, I was pointing out that in response to what was a dismissive comment about smooth newt saying you cannot just turn up in China, To say that it's actually quite a complex processess in any country, I was using China as an example because thats was where the conversation was.
The point is, during the period when a company who now may have lost trade in Europe have to start looking at expanding into other regional markets is that there is a lead time, it's not short, it can be fraught with difficulties and it can be bloody trciky to do so, especially outside the EU market. A company that is suffering from a profit loss is going to have to weather a couple of years of investment, risk taking and reduced cash flow whilst still surviving long enough to actually hopefully break into that region, thats going to break a hell of a lot of companies, and saying well the other trading block was a bit shit so that's all good then is not really good sense to me.
I would disagree on the manufacturing arguement though, with a reduced pound the price of materials to manufacture goes up, so increasing the BOM, that cost has to be absorbed somewhere.
The border thing is tricky, but I think us throwing our cards out of the game, does not help us, working within and trying to change it might have, for a start we also lose a lot if we take away free movement, there's reasons the NHS wanted an exemption from the fallout. Likewise there are plenty of brits in the EU who are going to suffer. Also by dropping it we could lose the trade rights which I guess takes us back to the top again. :)