Wow, downvoted an impressive 27 seconds after posting. You must be a fast reader…
UK GDP Q3 (barely 1.5% as opposed to the EU average of 2% or France 3.5%) and prediction for Q4 tell a whole different reality.
Furthermore, opinion article.
Counting a little too much on the US who have their own diplomatic and economic beef with the UK.
Chief among them, that this guy seems not aware of.
1. US has been making formal resolutions and reprimands from both branches of government against the UK’s constant threats to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which they consider an essential element to the Good Friday Agreement. Their *diplomatic* tone is that Article 50 and/or not enforcing the NIP in full is a potential breach of the peace in their eyes. Bear in mind those are the same eyes that resolved the much more serious Suez Crisis with mere threat of sanctions, and that Britain has since not made itself less vulnerable to sanctions. Don’t want to go risking that against the US especially as midterm election campaigning is ramping up.
2. Economically speaking this one is a time bomb waiting to happen. UK has no customs agreement with the EU, specifically no customs union. As such under WTO rules UK should check US goods the same as it checks EU goods. Yet why are US goods like chlorinated chicken checked and rejected at the border when EU goods get waved in without checks? That’s millions of dollars worth of discrimination, to say nothing of every other product the US would love to sell. It’s safe to say US industries are losing out of collective billions in potential sales to the UK over this discrimination. Grossly unfair, not just to the US but to all non EU WTO countries and their own collective billions in lost business. So far this is “temporary,” but as everyone worldwide is seeing, apparently “temporary” or “emergency” means permanent in the Tory dictionary. Would not be surprised when the US makes such a……request in the future, and again, billions worth of reasons to sanction the UK over this should it not accede to the request.
But here on r/europe we’ve learned that Politico has learned nothing about Europe and can only understand it through a US centric lens, and that adding .EU doesn’t change that.
The article is bollocks.
Biden holds Johnson in appropriate contempt, and is very lukewarm towards the UK. The Brexit fools’ famous US-UK trade deal is not even a blip on the radar.
We hold very few cards, and those we have are weak. The outlook is grim.
Uhm, I didn’t understand the article at all. What is this threat he is talking about? And I didn’t understand what the EU is supposed to do with this threat, shoot it?
We learned mass immigration does indeed push down wages…as the brexiteers said all along.
Downvote away, but the article has some interesting points (also some doubtful points, as OP ED’s often do, particularly the conclusion). The crux of the message is that member states will be less committed to the EU if the UK proves that it can be successful outside the EU. And, of course, the UK is in a decent position to do this. It is a big country. It is an English-speaking country. Its population is younger than that of the EU. Hence it can soften the blows of Brexit better than (as the article points out) a country like Italy.
This is, of course, a political risk for the EU, and it will increasingly pressure it to deliver equal levels of growth. to stay politically sexy. Of course, given that the EU is the sum of its members and that some have problematic domestic indicators in the economy, demographics, etc. this might be tough.
In essence, Europe is as much reponsible for Brexit as the UK and is in the wrong treating the UK as it does.
Well, well, well.
The UK, right now and essentially during the whole process, has failed to send forward someone who can actually negotiate anything of substance – AT ALL – because the UK still doesn’t really know what it wants – except being inside the EU but outside of it.
As thus he UK side of the negotiation table has been essentially empty.
And this is not the fault of the EU in any way.
Apart from this the described “danger” of alienating the UK is not in any substantial. The UK is not, for instance, Singapore and won’t be for the foreseeable future. A free trade zone is not materializing and it seems that is because noone is really interested in it.
So, well, this opinion piece is in reality mostly unfounded propaganda by some “European Research Group” groupy.
i like these 3 day old EU bashing accounts
must be paying well
Ban politico.
So what did the Brits learn from Brexit? Did they learn that when your political elite and the media keep on telling your for nearly half a century that the EU/EC is full of sh*t, you might end up voting to leave? What in God’s name has that got to do with continental Europe? This is 100% a British problem.
12 comments
Wow, downvoted an impressive 27 seconds after posting. You must be a fast reader…
UK GDP Q3 (barely 1.5% as opposed to the EU average of 2% or France 3.5%) and prediction for Q4 tell a whole different reality.
Furthermore, opinion article.
Counting a little too much on the US who have their own diplomatic and economic beef with the UK.
Chief among them, that this guy seems not aware of.
1. US has been making formal resolutions and reprimands from both branches of government against the UK’s constant threats to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which they consider an essential element to the Good Friday Agreement. Their *diplomatic* tone is that Article 50 and/or not enforcing the NIP in full is a potential breach of the peace in their eyes. Bear in mind those are the same eyes that resolved the much more serious Suez Crisis with mere threat of sanctions, and that Britain has since not made itself less vulnerable to sanctions. Don’t want to go risking that against the US especially as midterm election campaigning is ramping up.
2. Economically speaking this one is a time bomb waiting to happen. UK has no customs agreement with the EU, specifically no customs union. As such under WTO rules UK should check US goods the same as it checks EU goods. Yet why are US goods like chlorinated chicken checked and rejected at the border when EU goods get waved in without checks? That’s millions of dollars worth of discrimination, to say nothing of every other product the US would love to sell. It’s safe to say US industries are losing out of collective billions in potential sales to the UK over this discrimination. Grossly unfair, not just to the US but to all non EU WTO countries and their own collective billions in lost business. So far this is “temporary,” but as everyone worldwide is seeing, apparently “temporary” or “emergency” means permanent in the Tory dictionary. Would not be surprised when the US makes such a……request in the future, and again, billions worth of reasons to sanction the UK over this should it not accede to the request.
But here on r/europe we’ve learned that Politico has learned nothing about Europe and can only understand it through a US centric lens, and that adding .EU doesn’t change that.
The article is bollocks.
Biden holds Johnson in appropriate contempt, and is very lukewarm towards the UK. The Brexit fools’ famous US-UK trade deal is not even a blip on the radar.
We hold very few cards, and those we have are weak. The outlook is grim.
Uhm, I didn’t understand the article at all. What is this threat he is talking about? And I didn’t understand what the EU is supposed to do with this threat, shoot it?
We learned mass immigration does indeed push down wages…as the brexiteers said all along.
Downvote away, but the article has some interesting points (also some doubtful points, as OP ED’s often do, particularly the conclusion). The crux of the message is that member states will be less committed to the EU if the UK proves that it can be successful outside the EU. And, of course, the UK is in a decent position to do this. It is a big country. It is an English-speaking country. Its population is younger than that of the EU. Hence it can soften the blows of Brexit better than (as the article points out) a country like Italy.
This is, of course, a political risk for the EU, and it will increasingly pressure it to deliver equal levels of growth. to stay politically sexy. Of course, given that the EU is the sum of its members and that some have problematic domestic indicators in the economy, demographics, etc. this might be tough.
In essence, Europe is as much reponsible for Brexit as the UK and is in the wrong treating the UK as it does.
Well, well, well.
The UK, right now and essentially during the whole process, has failed to send forward someone who can actually negotiate anything of substance – AT ALL – because the UK still doesn’t really know what it wants – except being inside the EU but outside of it.
As thus he UK side of the negotiation table has been essentially empty.
And this is not the fault of the EU in any way.
Apart from this the described “danger” of alienating the UK is not in any substantial. The UK is not, for instance, Singapore and won’t be for the foreseeable future. A free trade zone is not materializing and it seems that is because noone is really interested in it.
So, well, this opinion piece is in reality mostly unfounded propaganda by some “European Research Group” groupy.
i like these 3 day old EU bashing accounts
must be paying well
Ban politico.
So what did the Brits learn from Brexit? Did they learn that when your political elite and the media keep on telling your for nearly half a century that the EU/EC is full of sh*t, you might end up voting to leave? What in God’s name has that got to do with continental Europe? This is 100% a British problem.