I think it's important not to get too obsessed with trade agreements. Remember, countries don't actually need trade agreements to trade (you can in even have informal agreements!). Many of the cheapest and best products already come from countries that the EU does not have trade agreements with, or which it has only recently made agreements with despite us buying their cool stuff for donkey's years. Best tools? American. Best wine? New world. Best cars? Far east. Cheapest everyday goods? China. Best castings? India. And so on. What does the EU produce that is better or cheaper than what the rest of the world supplies? Luxury cars is all I can think of.
Try to remember why we are in the EU. Here is an Oxford professor explaining on Newsnight back in May:
"Some countries can go it alone. The USA has such a big market (and firepower) that it can practically dictate the terms of its trade agreements with other countries. North Korea doesn't need them since it's closed to most of the world. But Britain is (and has been for centuries) an open trading economy. It attracts jobs and investors drawn to this English-speaking doorway to the EU and all its trading partners.
If Britain leaves the EU, it will suffer three consequences. First, it will lose foreign investment and jobs because new trade deals take an average of 28 months to negotiate - and that's too much uncertainty, for too long, for most investors. Second, the U.K. will become a rule-taker in trade negotiations. Like Switzerland in its recent deal with China, Britain will have to accept what larger partners have to offer. Third, the U.K. will lose its special access to the 60+ countries with whom the EU has agreements. In a slowing and intensely competitive global economy, these are serious handicaps to creating the jobs Britain needs."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eqbxj5/live/c3c6v2
Now look back and see who we export to: EU, US, China & Japan. And just because you can't name things that the EU produce does not mean we don't need to trade with them. Ignorance is not a virtue.
I could name a number of heavy engineering items we have purchased locally from EU countries for example, but what matters are the numbers, which I have already shown in post #192. The EU is a huge trading block for us.
Then look at our foreign investors such as Nissan, Ford etc, and locally to me - Siemens, who are building a wind turbine factory:
"But he said with Britain leaving the EU, there were now questions about the "big prize" for Hull – an export market to Europe and also the development of Hull and the Humber as an industrial and technological hub for the offshore wind turbine market.
Mr Maier said: "We're just going to have to accept there is going to be uncertainty. In that period of uncertainty look for opportunities to offset those barriers.
"We can give a lot of reassurance, particularly with what we have here (in the UK) today. We have 13 factories, we are totally committed to them, we see a good market here. But any future investments we might be thinking about, certainly in terms of new activities to export business, we don't know what the trading arrangements are."
Read more at
http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/siem...9465381-detail/story.html#q4bzQ1Mo5W02vOae.99
Its the same message from other investors: Uncertainty will dry up any new investment for years to come. This isn't new news, as Nissan was saying this about leaving the EU back in the 90s.
