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Thread: Should Britain leave the World Trade Organisation (WTO)?

  1. #1
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    Should Britain leave the World Trade Organisation (WTO)?

    Really a question for the Brexiteers.

    Once we leave the EU we would have to draft a schedule for trade which every one of the 164 member states would have to agree to.

    We are intending to copy and paste the EU schedule (what do you think about that?)!!

    Once we have set tarrifs on our goods it must be the same for every member of the WTO - we cannot give a better deal to any one we choose.

    Now, that doesn't sound like "taking back control" to me.

    So if you think Britain should go it alone, do you think we should leave the WTO as well - then we can do what the hell we like?

    The head of the WTO has announced that Britain will be £9billion per annum worse off for leaving the EU.

    https://www.instituteforgovernment.o...ganization-wto

  2. #2
    The problem is with world trade 1959-60 all the export customers are settled into little splinter groups.

    Unless the paradigm has totally changed, the company I was previously Export Sales Director for, simply cracked on and did the business.

    Sure there were different duties in inbound and outbound goods to pay, but once you factored in that percentage in and both partners had an explicit understanding of the Rules of Engagement between the two trading companies, quite frankly I found it to be a piece of cake!

    One resource that we have in this country that beavers away virtually unnoticed are our numerous Chambers of Commerce. Let's stop fretting and start selling!

  3. #3
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    Yes BT, until I retired last year I spent 20 years importing and exporting IT stuff.

    We dealt with companies all over the world but, without doubt, the EU was very simple market place, and a very close one.

    It was a real ballache dealing with most other countries. The bureaucracy involved took up a lot of our time and resources. But we did.

    Plus the fact that the lead time on orders was so large - we had to pay up front for stuff but not receive it for 6 weeks (USA) and even longer (Africa, Australia etc). We were wide open during this period to exchange rate fluctuations that could ruin a deal (or make it even better).

    What I was asking however, was if we really want to "take back control" then are we happy to obey WTO rules which are made by unelected mandarins over which we hold no sway?

    Many do not like the EU but seem happy to obey the WTO - which baffles me.

    If we want total control then why not leave both and be free to act as we wish?

  4. #4
    I can't speak for the majority 1959_60, but I'd leave the lot and trade alone. Why did you not book/spot forward on the exchange rates?
    We also had different foreign currency accounts that took all the risk out for me!

  5. #5
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    I'm surprised BT.

    86% of Labour members would back a peoples vote and 90% would vote to stay in the EU.

    Are you in the right party?

  6. #6
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    Why would we want to leave the WTO, as far as I understand it we trade under WTO rules with every country in the world, except those in the EU and any the EU has a trade agreement with, which isn't many. Again, as I understand it, the majority of our trade is carried out under WTO rules, what's the problem ?

  7. #7
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    Sinkov, if you check the link in the OP it explains,

    "2. The UK is already a WTO member but will need to extricate itself from the European Union (EU) ‘schedules’.
    The UK is a member of the WTO in its own right, having cofounded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the WTO’s predecessor, with other 22 countries in 1948. It does not have to reapply to join the WTO once it leaves the EU.

    But at present the UK operates in the WTO under the EU’s set of ‘schedules’ – a list of commitments that sets the terms of the EU’s tariffs, its quotas and its limits on subsidies. The UK will need to agree its own set of schedules at the WTO."

    So we can set our own tarrifs - if every one of the 164 nations agree to them.
    But once we have set them they will apply to EVERY other nation - we will be unable to make a special deal with any other country.

    We are simply going to copy and paste the EU schedules - which we already adhere to!

    Like I say, this is not my idea of "taking back control" - we will have to obey those pesky WTO mandarins who are unelected bureaucrats. Sound familiar?

    If you really want Britain to be free of the shackles and "take back control" then logically you would want us to leave the WTO as well as the EU?

  8. #8
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    And under WTO rules, no other country can offer us a special deal.

    Whatever deal we get offered by another nation must be no different to any other nation.

    If Mexico offers us a deal to buy their tequila then that offer would apply to every other nation.

  9. #9
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    .

    **** the WTO....is just a strong arm conduit (Bully) for the big corporations/multinationals/large trading blocks !

    ..


  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by sinkov View Post
    Why would we want to leave the WTO, as far as I understand it we trade under WTO rules with every country in the world, except those in the EU and any the EU has a trade agreement with, which isn't many. Again, as I understand it, the majority of our trade is carried out under WTO rules, what's the problem ?
    The small businesses which IMHO are the lifeblood of this country trade on regardless. It's only the MNC's who try to swing everything in their favour and negate tariffs and dodge quality impositions. Do you remember the "Cash for questions" fraud in our own Parliament involving those dreadful Hamilton's? The WTO are about as much use as the UN and a chocolate teapot.

    Every day millions of dollars are spent by the MNC's lobbying US Senators for beneficial assistance, meanwhile the little guys go about doing their thing! Trade and be damned.

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