Posted on 10/14/2013 5:17:41 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Eight out of 10 British manufacturers would choose to stay in the European Union if a referendum on membership of the 28-nation bloc were held today, says a survey released today (14 October).
The poll, for the EEF, the manufacturing sector’s biggest trade body, found that 85% of those asked would choose to stay in the EU, if given a say in a referendum. …
EEF Chief Executive Terry Scuoler said the results suggested manufacturers wanted to stay in a reformed EU and feared the economic fallout of leaving. “Britain must not gamble on its future in Europe. The stakes are enormous,” he said. “It is naïve to think we can pull up the drawbridge and carry on as normal. Billions of pounds of trading opportunities are at stake.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at euractiv.com ...
I concur. The EU is unlikely to stop buying stuff from the UK if the Brits pull out, and they are certainly not going to stop selling stuff - I mean, can they really afford to do that in these times?
I seem to recall that the Americans made a strike for their independence with Britain, despite being overwhelmingly dependent on trade with Britain both before and for many years after the Revolution.
Yet after their defeat, the British did not stop trading with the US out of pettiness, even in an age when pettiness and national pride counted for a lot more in international relations than is the case today.
The EU will not stop trading with Britain, Norway and Switzerland have a free trade agreement with the EU despite not being part of it, and more to the point, Britain will be free to negotiate their own FTA with the rising giants of South America and Asia, not to mention the USA.
The European Economic Area is very lopsided in favor of the EU. Non-EU states are forced to follow EU laws, which makes them de-facto EU states without the alleged “benefit” of having appointed politicians do any rubber-stamping of EU laws.
The EU would surely slap retaliatory tariffs on the UK if they left. Can’t really blame them for this.
With an estimated UK population of 63.1m people, this means that every man, woman and child paid €178.65 (£144.17) towards the EU budget in 2011.
They got back €104.12, meaning their net contribution was €74.53.
Why can’t we blame them? It’s wrong to assert independence from the EUSSR?
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