The “cumulative average” balance of trade in the UK from 1955 to 2016 was a deficit of £1,469 billion. Thus the “annual average” trade deficit for 62 years has been £23 billion. For every £100 billion worth of imports, UK exported £77 billion worth. With regard to the EU, the price of UK exports will remain the same when you consider devaluation advantage offset by import duty disadvantage. Whereas, imports from EU will suffer a double whammy: devaluation and duty, both disadvantages if we leave the Single Market. Because with EU we are always in a trade deficit, the duty we pay will always be much larger that the duty we recover.
The famous Apple iPhone’s 18+ key components are manufactured in several known countries and several unknown countries, including S Korea, Japan, USA, Taiwan and Italy. It is assembled and packed In China. 10+ different currencies are involved. The same is true of all products globally. Comparing trade negotiations to playing poker is fool hardy. The Cabinet, Government and Parliament, rather than arguing among themselves, must get cracking and play the poker game with EU officials on the other side of the table for real.
Nagindas Khajuria
By email
