The Brexit referendum thread: potential consequences for GB, EU and the Brits in CH

[fatmanfilms]

	Quote:	baboon
	Except Switzerland is mostly part of the single market which eliminates a lot of the checks and controls that are now causing problems at the UK/EU borders.

If that was true there would not be lorries queuing to go through customs. Switzerland is not in the single market in any way shape or form.

[baboon]

	Quote:	fatmanfilms
	If that was true there would not be lorries queuing to go through customs. Switzerland is not in the single market in any way shape or form.

Yes it is. From the UK government...:

	Quote:
	Switzerland is not an EU or EEA member but is part of the single market. This means Swiss nationals have the same rights to live and work in the UK as other EEA nationals.

Actually there are a few exceptions (basically agriculture) but 95%+ is covered.

For a little entertainment, here's a Bertelsmann paper on how much the participent states gain from single market membership. Apparently Switzerland benefits most.

	Quote:
	Moving to the results of the study, we first show that the Single Market provides higher welfare, higher productivity and lower markups to all members of the SM program...... In terms of monetary values (2016 euros), they instead range from 193 euros per capita for Bulgaria to a maximum of 2,914 euros per capita for Switzerland.

[st2lemans]

	Quote:	baboon
	Switzerland is not an EU or EEA member but is part of the single market. This means Swiss nationals have the same rights to live and work in the UK as other EEA nationals.

I have no desire to work or live in the EU.

I would however love to be able to order from and send stuff to the EU without lots of charges and red tape, but that would require being a member of a single market.

Tom

[fatmanfilms]

	Quote:	baboon
	Yes it is. From the UK government...: Actually there are a few exceptions (basically agriculture) but 95%+ is covered. https://www.gov.uk/eu-eea#:~:text=Th...EA%20nationals.

So why is Swiss VAT charged on imports to Switzerland? Answer There is no free movement of goods to Switzerland.

[baboon]

	Quote:	fatmanfilms
	So why is Swiss VAT charged on imports to Switzerland? Answer There is no free movement of goods to Switzerland.

Because that is nothing to do with the single market. We are part of the single market but not in customs union.

BTW the same applies within the EU. For a supply from (say) Germany to France, then the German supplier charges French VAT. Just that within the EU it doesn't have to happen at the border.

You really don't understand this stuff, do you.

[baboon]

	Quote:	st2lemans
	I have no desire to work or live in the EU. I would however love to be able to order from and send stuff to the EU without lots of charges and red tape, but that would require being a member of a single market. Tom

No. That would require being at least in customs union (which we are not) and probably for VAT being a member state of the EU. See my reply to FMF.

Single market is not the same as customs union. Within the EU they have both, we only have (mostly) the first (and the most important part for trade purposes).

[fatmanfilms]

	Quote:	baboon
	Because that is nothing to do with the single market. We are part of the single market but not in customs union. BTW the same applies within the EU. For a supply from (say) Germany to France, then the German supplier charges French VAT. Just that within the EU it doesn't have to happen at the border. You really don't understand this stuff, do you.

For business to business sales to another EU country there is no VAT charged by the supplier.
You really don't understand this stuff, do you? If you were EU VAT registered you might

[baboon]

	Quote:	fatmanfilms
	For business to business sales to another EU country there is no VAT charged by the supplier. You really don't understand this stuff, do you? If you were EU VAT registered you might

I didn't state B2B and was talking B2C. But yes, I didn't specify that so my bad.

[TonyClifton]

From today's Telegraph. Ouch!

	Quote:
	You would hardly know that AstraZeneca is the saviour in this saga, not the villain. It is making no profit from the vaccine. It is selling at cost, like a charity, offering a humanitarian service to the world. But don’t expect gratitude from the Berlaymont. Nor is there any hint of acknowledgement that Brussels got itself into its vaccine disaster by haggling over prices and trying to drive hard bargains on indemnity. It wasted three months before committing to AstraZeneca, as if it were the easiest thing in the world to mass-produce a viral vector vaccine. That is why the EU-based plants are not yet up to full efficiency. The UK and the US invested seven times as much public money per capita to accelerate the vaccine breakthrough, acting with war-time energy while the Commission remained stuck in its bureaucratic box-ticking subculture, catering to the lowest common denominator of 27 states. If ever there was an example of why Brussels should not be let anywhere near policies of real national sensitivity, this was it. EuroIntelligence said the EU conducted vaccine talks in the same spirit that it conducted Brexit talks. “It tried to lock in a perceived short-term price advantage at the expense of everything else,” it said. Speed is everything in a pandemic. The Commission could not see the wood for the trees.

[fatmanfilms]

	Quote:	baboon
	I didn't state B2B and was talking B2C. But yes, I didn't specify that so my bad.

As you were replying to my quote below, it should have been totally clear that we were discussing B2B

	Quote:	fatmanfilms
	If that was true there would not be lorries queuing to go through customs.

[Polymath]

	Quote:	TonyClifton
	From today's Telegraph. Ouch!

In order to actually secure better deals, deals need to be closed. Clearly something the EU is not too great at.

[TonyClifton]

Wasn't there a sneering post on here about Brits rejecting the Pfizer vaccine for the AstraZeneca one? Well guess what, the mother of the CEO of AZ (who's actually French did the same! Read this heartwarming tale of motherly love in this interview with CEO Pascal Soriot

	Quote:
	Will you get an Oxford vaccine jab? “Yeah, of course, as soon as possible. My mother lives in France, she is 92 and she was offered the Pfizer vaccine. I told her to take it and be protected quickly but she said, “No, I want to take the AZ vaccine”. So I would take it myself, of course. It’s a good vaccine”.

https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/20...nes-284349628/

[RufusB]

	Quote:	Dinivan
	The EU is asking AZ to dare publishing the contract. To which AZ is refusing. Clearly something is fishy. Did they make contradictory promises to two governments?

Why should AZ have to publish the contract? I'm assuming their lawyers know what us what.

	Quote:	Polymath
	In order to actually secure better deals, deals need to be closed. Clearly something the EU is not too great at.

I imagine they're missing all the British admin worker bees who got stuff done.

[JackieH]

Have you seen the front pages of the UK gutter press today- utterly shameful!?


The EU paid £298,000,000 up front, back in August last year to help the UK build manufacturing capacity to make this vaccine in Britain.