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| Well the UK will be unshackled from EU policy. Trade policy and agreements can be made based on UK interests instead of EU interests. | |
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You're missing the point, if the others are operating under the same market conditions and generate positive trade balances, what's wrong with UK industry that it is not able to achieve the same outcome???
By the same token, Ireland and the UK joined the the EEC on the same date and at the time they were in monetary union, yet today Ireland has been generating positive trade balances since the late 1980s while the UK generates deficits. In 1974 the UK accounted for 55% of Irish exports and yet by 2003 it had fallen to 18%, with the rest of the EU moving from 21% to 43% of exports, while exports to the US moved up from 10% of the total to 21%.
To me the idea that the EU is somehow holding back UK trade does not ring true. If it was the case then how come the others are not also being impacted by EU policies??? It would appear to me that domestic policies must some how play a major part in the outcome.