Brexit or not, the Handcart is still pointing toward hell, regardless.
We import from European countries because they make things we want and are bang next door. Proximity is the gravity of import/export, always has been. Trade with the commonwealth is a defunct notion that hopelessly harks back to a mythical time of empire. Pure Brexit fantasy. Even tory MP’s now acknowledge that the new trade deal with Australia is bad for the UK. Now please go find a tangible Brexit benefit and we can discuss how good it is. And go find staff for all those restaurants that can’t fully open.
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Proximity has nothing to do with imports, we do more trade with the USA than the EU which is much further away in proximity. Even food isn’t proximity driven, UK salmon, cheese, whisky etc is exported to Japan, USA etc all the time.
As for trade with the Commonwealth being defunct, thats not true either. Trade with countries such as Australia and Africa are increasing as their products are cheaper, more available and of high quality (such as Australian beef and lamb).
There ^^ are some more tangible benefits, plus the fact that the UK isn’t subject to EU regulations for our exports to other countries, making our manufacturing leaner.
The trade deal with the USA is not bad for the UK either. We import 10% of lamb etc from Australia compared to Ireland. Australian lamb and beef is also grass fed and is readily available in the winter months, where Irish livestock are housed in barns, pumped full of antibiotics and fed pellets. UK lamb and beef can be exported to Australia in UK summer months when its winter in Australia, so its a vice versa relationship. The tariffs will be reduced to zero over 12 to 15 years.
The commonwealth is a much bigger market for the UK than the EU.
Stop making things up.
I’m done banging my head against your lack of knowledge and logic. Go back to the 1950’s with all your hopes of selling to the commonwealth. See how well that turned out for UK manufacturing. Go explain to UK farmers why they will need to shut up shop when cheap Australia meat is dumped into UK supermarkets. Stepping back from regulation will not improve UK productivity - it will simply mean more problems and risks. See all the fouled river and sea water for what happens when regulation is rolled back.
And every single analysis of trade shows that proximity is the number 1 factor. Deny it all you want - same as you deny that there are no benefits from Brexit … yet fail to demonstrate any.
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We stopped selling and buying into the Commonwealth when we joined the common market in 1972/1973, not in the 1950s.
Not being funny, but you just have absolutely no idea what your talking about. I’ve also told you the benefits of Brexit on here, you just need to read my posts. As for regulations of fouled seawater and rivers, if we didn’t discharge sewage when there is flooding and extreme rainfall conditions, we would end up with sewage in our water supplies and burst mains spewing sewage all over the roads. Its permissible and within UK government guidelines. Unless, ofcourse your quoting EU regs, which has prevented us from dredging rivers because of dangers to wildlife, which is one of the biggest causes of flooding and drainage issues in the UK anyway.
Proximity has nothing to do with trade - for example, the EU just signed up to MERCUSOR which involves imports of meat from countries such as Brazil, Aregintina, USA and Australia. Your own EU disagrees with you as well over that one.
We import 300,000 tones of meat from Ireland, our deal with Australia is 10% of that - please read the trade deal and stop inventing things.
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I see that George Eustice, the Tory MP who participated in negotiating the UK / Australia trade deal has had some comments on this deal. Somehow, even though the arch idiots Johnson and Truss said it was a great deal, it seems George is of a different view. In fact he now says it is a poor deal for the UK and the negotiations were poorly run by the UK. We gave too much away. So it seems that this deal is not any sort of benefit for the UK. Which means we are still looking for a single Brexit benefit.
Oh happy days . 
To be fair the UK negotiating team had absolutely no experience in dealing with FTAs because the EU had done it for them. They were dealing with a country that had negotiated many FTAs over many years and was very experienced at negotiating them.
It is hardly a surprise who got the better deal, in fact the only thing that farmers here seem to be complaining about is the fact that UK backpackers are no longer required to work in rural areas to get a working visa extension as they were before and all other nation’s backpackers are still required to do. That was Boris’ sticking point apparently, FTA’s always have a bit of give and take.
The EU are appalling at trade deals, out of all of them, only Japan has been ratified.
All our trade deals are ratified, certainly more than the EU have ever got done.
As for Visas, get farmers to pay proper wages or get their wallets open and invest in automation
Oh dear! Australian wages are legislated, they have to pay proper wages no matter who they employ.
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages
Hope that helps.
The UK Australia deal is nothing of the sort.
George Eustice has been consistently crap at everything. They don’t call him George Useless for nothing.
The Australia trade deal doesn’t remove tarrifs for (up to) 15 years either. The UK has a massively expanding population and (thanks to the EU subsiding our farmers to sit on their fat arses and not do any farming) we do not have the capacity to meet domestic demand. By importing from countries like Australia we benefit from cheaper, higher quality meat products than we do from places like the EU. Australian cattle are grass fed and are farmed on open land all year round. Over in Europe, cattle has to be housed in barns which increases cost due to heating, feeding and antibiotics.
UK protections are covered in 14 pages of the FTA, where Australias are covered in only 2 pages. The balance of which country is more protected via the FTA is obvious to anyone, unless your a socialist and want nationalised meat products etc. That way of thinking never works out well.
Who cares about Australian wages ?
I was talking about EU workers coming to the UK to pick fruit etc on minimum wage. We have wage legislation here too
If you were talking about UK farmers why were you replying to me? I never mentioned UK farmers. Who cares what UK farmers pay their workers?
Because you quoted me.
No I didn’t, you just make this stuff up.
My original message (not quoting you or in reply to anything you said):
You then replied to that message:
To which I replied:
Your nonsensical answer was:
To which I asked:
and you say:
Really? You are a complete joke. You squirm and falsify your replies when things don’t go your way. Is that the best you can do?
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If you don’t want me to reply, then don’t quote me.
You quoted me, so I replied.
You quoted me again and asked a question so I’ve replied again.
This is how this works.
Dear heart, I am happy for you to reply just not with your mendacious bullshit.
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Grow up Bruce.
Don’t start banging on about your Australian utopia and slate the UK while still clutching to your UK passport, just in case you need to beg the UK tax payer to bail you out when it all goes legs up for you and you have to come crawling back. If you need to run away from your new home, why not run to an EU country? The EU can’t be as great as you say it is considering you left the EU before we did and your next stop when it all goes wrong will be in the UK not one of the 27.
Get rid of your UK citizenship if you hate us so much and use one of the 27 as your last chance saloon.
Funnily enough the trends in the UK are not supported by a trade deal that enables tariff free bulk importing of meat products from the other side of the world. First trend - slowing population growth. From a recent Reuters article “The United Kingdom’s population growth is projected to slow dramatically in the next decade, largely due to lower future fertility levels.
The United Kingdom’s population is projected to grow 3.2% to 69.2 million in the decade to 2030, up from 67.1 million in 2020. In the decade to 2020, the population grew by 4.3 million, or 6.9%.” Growth but slower growth and not a massively expanding population.
The second trend - from the Lancet “Using data from the NDNS, a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health found that UK meat consumption has fallen by 17 per cent in the last decade. Most people, this study found, are eating less red and processed meat but more white meat or no meat.” This trend away from consuming cattle / sheep meat will continue due to both health and cost of living needs.
The third trend, not unique to the UK - focus on the environmental impact of food miles. Over the next decade this will come under greater scrutiny and most likely action or regulation to limit excess food miles.
So not only is the Australia FTA badly weighted in favour of Australian farm exports, but it is also the wrong solution at the wrong time. No wonder George Eustice acknowledges that it is a bad deal. And definitely not a Brexit benefit of any sort.
So we are still looking for that elusive Brexit benefit that is tangible rather than conceptual or without substance.
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