Is the end nigh for the Euro? [vol. 3]
Discussion
Gargamel said:
Secondly, that is only direct contribution. What about the costs of compliance with EU legislation, directives and other procedures.
I am all for harmonisation of standards, where sensible. but as we have seen over the years many are nonsense.
Other than local bureaucracy and some EU specific items (if there are any these days outside the right to label, say, cheese and champagne according to source, most standards are not within the EU competence as such. They represent the views of 27 countries (that may not agree with each other) as a single voice on committees where most other nations have their own votes.I am all for harmonisation of standards, where sensible. but as we have seen over the years many are nonsense.
Being as this is a motoring based forum one only has to look at the "World car" platform development to see the signs of global standards in play. The motor industry is not alone in such developments towards standardisation. Of course the major corporations are unlikely to be against such moves either.
I doubt that local import blocking arrangements, as practised in France, for example, a few decades back, would work for long in these times. Global corporations would have a vested interest to make sure that their components could be deployed locally wherever they were made around the world. Cross border investment - especially EU companies heavily invested in the UK - would hardly be keen to see such a lucrative subsidised market collapse and undermine their own positions.
That's not to say that things might not get very "interesting" for a while ...
Andy Zarse said:
What I meant by my (admittedly badly-worded) comment earlier was that being an EU member does raise barriers to trade with other non-EU countries, not that it prevents all trade (as I suspect you realised). We cannot agree our own free trade deals with the vast majority of the world economy. And when the EU negotiates on these deals it has to do so for 27 different countries with inevitable compromises. On every trade deal there must be nothing, and I repeat NOTHING, done to damage French agriculture for example. This is a main reason why there's still, 70 years after the end of WW2, no free trade deal with the USA. It's utterly crazy.
One of the main reasons there's no free trade deal with the US is that their industrial farming is even scarier than ours, with cattle injected with monkey gland extract* every 5 minutes, insane subsidies for corn producers and other weirdness.*May not be true, but there's definitely something getting injected into it.
LongQ said:
Andy Zarse said:
CAP is a disgraceful blight on humanity. Why the likes of Bonio etc aren't up in arms about it I do not know. CAP crushes markets for African farmers, impoverishes them and their fragile societies. I want no further part of this disgusting evil.
From what I read he's probably not able to put his arms up at the moment.
Mermaid said:
No-one is going to stop trading with the UK. People trade with China, Russia, israel, Zimbabwe and probably NK too. (maybe not the last one)
NK have a pretty good trade in slaves actually. Russian timber and Qatar's world cup will be brought to you by the 21st century slave trade 
Andy Zarse said:
LongQ said:
Andy Zarse said:
CAP is a disgraceful blight on humanity. Why the likes of Bonio etc aren't up in arms about it I do not know. CAP crushes markets for African farmers, impoverishes them and their fragile societies. I want no further part of this disgusting evil.
From what I read he's probably not able to put his arms up at the moment.Dangerous things, bicycles.
Edited by LongQ on Thursday 20th November 17:57
Mermaid said:
Walford said:
Europe is in recession, stopping trade with the UK would turn it into a depression, talk of ending free trade is ridiculous
No-one is going to stop trading with the UK. People trade with China, Russia, israel, Zimbabwe and probably NK too. (maybe not the last one)Really we need to come up with a stronger new word, something which trumps the ubiquitous "depression". Not even a "lost decade" really covers it: Perma-slump maybe appropriate for Greece, Portugal and especially Italy who's economy is now smaller than when it joined the Euro in 1999...
Andy Zarse said:
Recession? Much of it is, or until very recently has been, in actual depression.
Really we need to come up with a stronger new word, something which trumps the ubiquitous "depression". Not even a "lost decade" really covers it: Perma-slump maybe appropriate for Greece, Portugal and especially Italy who's economy is now smaller than when it joined the Euro in 1999...
Manipulated & then buggered, now deep into Wonga. Really we need to come up with a stronger new word, something which trumps the ubiquitous "depression". Not even a "lost decade" really covers it: Perma-slump maybe appropriate for Greece, Portugal and especially Italy who's economy is now smaller than when it joined the Euro in 1999...
LongQ said:
Andy Zarse said:
LongQ said:
Andy Zarse said:
CAP is a disgraceful blight on humanity. Why the likes of Bonio etc aren't up in arms about it I do not know. CAP crushes markets for African farmers, impoverishes them and their fragile societies. I want no further part of this disgusting evil.
From what I read he's probably not able to put his arms up at the moment.Dangerous things, bicycles.
I'm very upset at this news.
Walford said:
Europe is in recession, stopping trade with the UK would turn it into a depression, talk of ending free trade is ridiculous
An alternative scenario is one where the remaining EU states manipulate duties, tariffs and quotas to induce UK companies to relocate to mainland europe. Honda, Nissan, Toyota etc are only here in the first place because they need a European manufacturing base to access the EU market, and financial services are very mobile so could easily relocate if it was in their interests to do so. Or maybe that would never happen because of the long standing affection and sense of obligation our neighbours feel towards the UK. After all, France, Germany or Spain would never do anything to harm the UK would they...RYH64E said:
An alternative scenario is one where the remaining EU states manipulate duties, tariffs and quotas to induce UK companies to relocate to mainland europe. Honda, Nissan, Toyota etc are only here in the first place because they need a European manufacturing base to access the EU market, and financial services are very mobile so could easily relocate if it was in their interests to do so. Or maybe that would never happen because of the long standing affection and sense of obligation our neighbours feel towards the UK. After all, France, Germany or Spain would never do anything to harm the UK would they...
I think the WTO would have something to say about that. The tide would most likely flow the other way.RYH64E said:
Walford said:
Europe is in recession, stopping trade with the UK would turn it into a depression, talk of ending free trade is ridiculous
An alternative scenario is one where the remaining EU states manipulate duties, tariffs and quotas to induce UK companies to relocate to mainland europe. Honda, Nissan, Toyota etc are only here in the first place because they need a European manufacturing base to access the EU market, and financial services are very mobile so could easily relocate if it was in their interests to do so. Or maybe that would never happen because of the long standing affection and sense of obligation our neighbours feel towards the UK. After all, France, Germany or Spain would never do anything to harm the UK would they...RYH64E said:
An alternative scenario is one where the remaining EU states manipulate duties, tariffs and quotas to induce UK companies to relocate to mainland europe.
You mean playing games like giving £80m of EU taxpayer money to Ford to move Transit production from Southampton to Turkey. Given that they pull that kind of s
t while you're still in their club you actually have a very good point about what they might do when you leave. Your continued mebership of the EU is like a battered wife staying with her husband because of what he might do if she leaves.RYH64E said:
Walford said:
Europe is in recession, stopping trade with the UK would turn it into a depression, talk of ending free trade is ridiculous
An alternative scenario is one where the remaining EU states manipulate duties, tariffs and quotas to induce UK companies to relocate to mainland europe. Honda, Nissan, Toyota etc are only here in the first place because they need a European manufacturing base to access the EU market, and financial services are very mobile so could easily relocate if it was in their interests to do so. Or maybe that would never happen because of the long standing affection and sense of obligation our neighbours feel towards the UK. After all, France, Germany or Spain would never do anything to harm the UK would they...The EU would not have the power to impose duties on British manufactured cars.
Even if it did have the power, it wouldn't exercise it because Europe exports more to us than we export to them. Europe would lose far more than we would.
Germany's Commerzbank is to charge big corporate clients fees if they hold "substantial" deposits at the bank.
Commerzbank is the first major bank to make such a move and says it will encourage big clients to move cash into alternative investments.
Private savers and small and medium sized businesses will not be affected by the policy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30127868
Commerzbank is the first major bank to make such a move and says it will encourage big clients to move cash into alternative investments.
Private savers and small and medium sized businesses will not be affected by the policy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30127868
Mermaid said:
Private savers and small and medium sized businesses will not be affected by the policy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30127868
This week...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30127868
According to their CEO they weren't going to do it at all eight days ago!
don4l said:
Another poster who doesn't understand what the WTO has achieved over the last couple of decades.
The EU would not have the power to impose duties on British manufactured cars.
Even if it did have the power, it wouldn't exercise it because Europe exports more to us than we export to them. Europe would lose far more than we would.
Tariffs on non-EU manufactured cars are already in place, the import duty is 10%, it's the main reason why Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc are here in the first place. The EU would not have the power to impose duties on British manufactured cars.
Even if it did have the power, it wouldn't exercise it because Europe exports more to us than we export to them. Europe would lose far more than we would.
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