Re: @ Halcin
That is true and I am sorry to hear that.
So you're OK that a huge number of UK businesses, particularly the smaller ones (who employ more people than the big businesses that everybody focusses on) will go to the wall due to a huge increase in red-tape and costs?
Apparently Germany roasts and sells coffee.
Does this have anything to do with the example of the UK businesses that will be considerably less competitive all of a sudden?
In any case, Germany does not roast and sell coffee. Don't go all Daily Mail (racist) on the situation attempting to find scapegoats and bogeymen for your points of view. What may be the case is that companies operating in Germany, who may be German in ownership, but might not, buy in green coffee beans, roast them and then sell them on in the EU, taking advantage of the difference in tariff rates. There is nothing stopping UK, Spanish, Irish, French or whatever organisations doing exactly the same. This kind of tariff, while not immediately helpful for the supplier of green beans encourages business and industry within the EU, is this a bad thing or not? Flattening such tarriff differences between raw and manufacturerd goods will only bring a small benefit to those purchasing the end product, because they may be able to purchase the product cheaper - however they may be less sure of the production quality and checks required and what happens to those that are no longer employed by the local coffee roasting companies when they close down?
You are quite right about China, they are heavily investing for mutual gain however if a Chinese company owns your infrastructure where does that leave locals? With better infrastructure of course, but all owned by foreign organisations, largely for the profit of the foreign organisation. In the long term this is not a good plan and look how well it worked out for the British Empire (well, really the various trading companies)?
It is the same protectionism with tariffs that will bring the cost of food down for the whole country (rich and poor alike) when we leave.
I'd like to understand the reasoning behind this. Interest rates will go up, costs of pretty much everything will go up due to a huge increase in red-tape and bureaucracy and a collapsing exchange rate making imports much more expensive just on this factor alone. Removing all tariffs, which is a very bad idea because removing them will advantage importers of products that can be produced in cheaper locales, is unlikely to change the balance much in any favour. Tariffs are protectionist over local economies, otherwise cheap regions, or regions that don't care much for worker rights, child "slavery" or whatever it takes to be cheap, will be able to out compete locals and the job of a government is to maintain local industry - to a point.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
