Trade

The topic of trade is one of the chief areas where 'Remainians' believe they can scare the British
people. It is true, if we leave, we will have to renegotiate new trade deals with the EU. For some
reason, the idea of 'new trade deals' worries people. When broaching the subject of leaving the EU
and forging new deals, Remainains always try to imply or hint that perhaps these deals will not be
made, or that they will negatively impact British workers. It is important to note that any myth
about British workers losing their jobs due to an exit from the EU is misleading. Jobs are tied to
trade with the EU; not with EU membership. Occassionaly, those of us who advocate leaving the
EU are asked if we want to 'be like Norway?', but there is significant difference in Norway's trade
with the EU and Britain's. Yes, Norway does pay for access to the EU's free trade market, but
Norway has a 36.6bn trade surplus with the EU. In trade with the EU last year, the UK had a
89bn trade deficit (unsurprisingly, the vast amount, 31.6bn, was with Germany) the same as our
entire education budget; and only 49bn less than the NHS budget. It is actually quite insulting for
the Remainians to imply our European neighbours (no, we can't leave Europe. They will always be
our neighbours, but they need not be our lawmakers) would be so spiteful as to willingly lose out on
the 89bn they make from us each year. Neither European countries nor businesses based in those
countries would allow this to happen. It would mean major layoffs in the German car industry, the
French wine industry etc. 'But you can't be 100% certain' the Remainians say. That's true, but if the
99% certainty isn't enough, there is something about which we can be certain. If the UK leaves the
EU, it would retain its 'Most Favoured Nation' status in the World Trade Organisation. This means,
our European neighbours could not place punitive tariffs on UK trade without violating the WTO
rules.
As those who want to leave have stressed over and over, if we left the EU, we would not be
retreating within ourselves, but actually liberating ourselves from the EU's yoke and making it
easier to trade with the rest of the world. Our reliance on the EU is decreasing. From Dec 2014 to
Dec 2015, our exports to the rest of the world rose 22% to 17.1bn. Over the same time, our exports
to the EU fell 7.7% to 10.4bn. When you consider all of this is happening while we are prevented
from making our own free trade deals with growing markets such as India and China, and while
being prevented from having a free trade deal with our Anglosphere partners Canada, Australia,
New Zealand and U.S., it is clear that outside of the EU, we would have plenty of scope to increase
our trade as we once again make our own trade deals.
Some say to leave the EU would be to leap into the unknown, but every person who has had to
work for Britain's sovereignty has made this risk. Soldiers in WW1 and WW2 marched, sailed and
flew into the unknown. Why? Because they fought for something bigger than themselves. They
fought so Britain would not be ruled by unelected politicians in Europe. How lucky we are that to
regain our sovereignty, we merely have to place an 'x' in the box that says 'Leave'