Political relations between UK-EU

[bluethrunthru]

Its going well. From what I have seen Greggs have supply issues too and McCains are running out of spuds too

McDonald's runs out of milkshakes in England, Scotland and Wales

Supply issues at English, Welsh and Scottish outlets are due to the lorry driver shortage, the firm says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[bluethrunthru]

The UK kite mark punted back a year. Via FT.

’...there weren't enough certification bodies in UK, or enough readiness by EU businesses to certify their products with UKCA marks. So UK govt had to yield to reality.‘

Also UK border controls in October, will just be data collection. No checks etc. Means our exporters face full border controls, whereas EU exporters to UK will not.

Finally it seems we are prepared to *checks notes* starve rather than have EU drivers in the country. Marvellous :)

Low value industries........food? Does that **** just live on air?

 

[west didsblue]

Talk about playing to the audience. £670bn is the total value of all imports and exports to EU in 2019 - last time I looked we still trade with the EU.

2021 will obviously show lower total value for various reasons but our exports to the EU are pretty healthy, our June export to EU numbers have rarely been better; 2018 they were marginally higher and then not since 2006 (ignoring inflationary impacts). Our balance of trade gap has shrunk (aka our imports from EU are lower) but the trend is also showing growing imports from EU - difficult to predict where we will end 2021 as the numbers are largely volatile. Anyroads I’m sure there would have been a post or two in the thread already about our improve exports to the EU so I won’t dwell on it.

Obviously numbers aren’t the be all and end all, there are real people with real businesses that are still struggling.

Depends what you mean by healthy.
Overall exports are up by 7% compared to last year for obvious reasons, however the real measure is to compare with exports prior to the pandemic and prior to the implementation of additional Brexit related red tape on our exports to the EU, and if you do that then they are down 7% compared to 2018.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/april2021

 

[bluethrunthru]

Depends what you mean by healthy.
Overall exports are up by 7% compared to last year for obvious reasons, however the real measure is to compare with exports prior to the pandemic and prior to the implementation of additional Brexit related red tape on our exports to the EU, and if you do that then they are down 7% compared to 2018.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/april2021

They don't want to face up to that truth though

 

[BobKowalski]

Talk about playing to the audience. £670bn is the total value of all imports and exports to EU in 2019 - last time I looked we still trade with the EU.

2021 will obviously show lower total value for various reasons but our exports to the EU are pretty healthy, our June export to EU numbers have rarely been better; 2018 they were marginally higher and then not since 2006 (ignoring inflationary impacts). Our balance of trade gap has shrunk (aka our imports from EU are lower) but the trend is also showing growing imports from EU - difficult to predict where we will end 2021 as the numbers are largely volatile. Anyroads I’m sure there would have been a post or two in the thread already about our improve exports to the EU so I won’t dwell on it.

Obviously numbers aren’t the be all and end all, there are real people with real businesses that are still struggling.

Germany must be really unlucky not be benefitting from the UK booming economy (sans chickens). Deferring the UK Quality Mark and retaining the EU Mark will help a bit, though. Nice to see reality unmoved by Brexit ideology :)

German exports to major European partners
Jan-June 2021 vs Jan-June 2020:

+20% Belgium
+17% Netherlands
+17% France
+28% Italy
+23% Spain
+26% Poland
+23% Czech Republic
+20% Austria

+3% UK

German imports from major European partners
Jan-June 2021 vs Jan-June 2020:

+32% Belgium
+11% Netherlands
+10% France
+25% Italy
+12% Spain
+25% Poland
+22% Czech Republic
+19% Austria

-11% UK

 

[bluethrunthru]

SPAM or corned beef for Christmas dinner it is then

Government is ‘twiddling its thumbs’ while poultry meat production suffers - The British Poultry Council

Labour crisis will lead to less British food being produced and a two-tier food system warns the British Poultry Council. The British poultry meat industry is facing a significant shortage of workers across farming and processing with businesses reporting an average vacancy rate of over 16% of...

britishpoultry.org.uk

 

[bluethrunthru]

Note BTW - England, Scotland and Wales Maccie Dee's have no milkshakes - NI however is different - question for Brexiters - why is that? Whats so different there?

 

[BobKowalski]

Low value industries........food? Does that **** just live on air?

Yeah, that was a breathtakingly bad take...

 

[metalblue]

Depends what you mean by healthy.
Overall exports are up by 7% compared to last year for obvious reasons, however the real measure is to compare with exports prior to the pandemic and prior to the implementation of additional Brexit related red tape on our exports to the EU, and if you do that then they are down 7% compared to 2018.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/april2021

Looking at absolute numbers, as you rightly point out COVID makes comparisons more complex but our total June export value to EU (£14.3bn) was the highest since July 2019 (£14.5bn), our highest single months on records are Mar 2019 @ £15.9bn and April 2006 @ £16.1bn. Back to the COVID caveat our June exports may simply be better because there was a bit of pent up demand in the EU, be good to see the next couple of months to start to get a view of trends - hopefully ourimports from the EU will continue to improve as well (June was £19.1bn, July 2019 for comparison was £22.3bn)

 

[BobKowalski]

...Anyroads I’m sure there would have been a post or two in the thread already about our improve exports to the EU so I won’t dwell on it.

There have. And it isn't complicated. If you raise trade barriers, you hinder trade, impose administrative barriers and increase costs.

The solution is to decrease these trade barriers. To do this we need a deeper and more beneficial trade arrangement with the EU. The current deal is shallow and one-sided. The EU have put in place full border controls which our industries have to navigate. EU industries do not face this challenge as we have not put in place border controls and the likelihood of us doing so in October are remote.

The UK Quality standard was part of this attempt to reassert UK influence over trade, yet was pushed back as we don't have the infrastructure to do the necessary checks and certification and International companies declined to undergo an additional costly exercise to satisfy our vanity.

The solution to those business struggling and facing additional red tape and admin costs is to eliminate them and that means accepting the UK is bound up within the EU economic zone and accepting the common rules and standards that govern it.

This will reduce trade barriers, eliminate unnecessary admin costs to our industries and remove the angst of a trade border between GB and NI.

People who reject this solution prize political ideology over economic welfare of this country and the peace process in NI. Brexit is the new communist orthodoxy.