Journalists who have
suddenly discovered the term customs union
and who seem to think it differs from the single market
have taken to asking politicians whether we can remain in one but not
the other.
For
those who may be confused:
(1)
A Free Trade Area is a number of countries which sell each other
goods without imposing tariffs, quotas or other restrictions on such
transactions.
(2)
A Customs Union combines a Free Trade Area with a Common External
Tariff, effectively discriminating in favour of other members and
against non-members.
(3)
The EU Single Market combines both of the above with a common
regulatory and standards regime enforced by the European Court of
Justice.
Not
only is there no advantage to system (2) over system (1), it is
disadvantageous because it prevents members doing separate, advantageous deals with non-members.
The
reason for having (2) tends to be the price you have to pay to get
(1), since various individual members may want protection against
specific non-members or their products. Rather than a complicated
mishmash of bilateral deals you end up with the same external tariff
against all outsiders.
Therefore
the question at issue is not 'Can we manage to stay in the Customs
Union?' but 'Might we be forced to stay in the Customs Union as the
price of keeping free trade with The EU?'
True,
The EU is at present our largest trading partner, but it is also a
sclerotic low-growth market with a moribund single currency
permanently on the point of collapse, to which threat the only reply
to date has been more and more debilitating austerity.
On
top of this the single market regulations stifle innovation and
investment in cutting-edge technologies which is the true remedy to
stagnation.
The
only thing we should want from The EU is free trade (in services as
well as goods.) Having the government pay to get this (out of
taxpayers' money) is futile; you might as well let the taxpayers pay
tariffs directly.
Being
cut off from the ability to strike deals with non-members defeats the
whole objective of leaving the EU. It guarantees a worse position
than we had before Brexit.
But
as I've pointed out before, we already have free trade with the EU.
We are not going to start a tariff war, since it's not in our
interest. It's not in their interest either but they might still do
it out of pique. Nobody would accuse the Present EU administration of
acting sensibly. If and when they do raise tariffs, we decide how to respond.
Note
to all those demanding a plan - You just read the only sensible plan.
Until the EU decides what, if any, tariffs it will impose, NOTHING
WHATSOEVER needs to be done or indeed can be done in response.
