| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:The Squalid Campaign | |
| Posted by: | Michael Robinson | |
| Date/Time: | 09/06/16 03:15:00 |
| You are thinking in extremes like "refuse to trade". Even under World Trade Organisation terms a country can't refuse imports of goods such as cars so the worst case scenario is there are import tariffs so BMWs become more expensive for UK consumers and of course UK manufactured cars become more expensive for countries they are exported to. The execs of Honda wont be rubbing their hands at that given they manufacture here. However the UK isn't a big enough market to sustain car manufacturing just for UK consumers - the plants here need to export to make them viable. If the UK exports are too expensive, then the manufacturers shut their UK factories. So there would be all the same car brands competing with each other in the UK, they would just be more expensive to buy but people who worked in UK car plants will be out of a job. WTO terms are strong on goods, so that means not much change for countries who mainly export goods (like Germany) but the WTO terms are more vague on services and that isn't good for countries who mainly export services (like the UK). So Germany could make it difficult for exported UK services, like financial services, to grab this market for themselves but there would be nothing much the UK could do to restrict German goods - unless you think the UK should leave the WTO as well? |