BY BEN KERRIGAN
No trade deals have been negotiated for a brexit scenario, if we leave the E.U, it has been revealed today. Britain will not necessarily enjoy freer trade in the event of a Brexit vote just because it a member of the World Trade Organization, the boss of the World Trade Organization has argued.
Roberto Azevedo yesterday said no discussion about trade arrangements if Britain votes to leave the European Union, adding that such talks would inevitably be “long and difficult”, according to the U.K Guardian newspaper. This contradicts claims by Brexit supporters that Britain could still enjoy freer trade even if we leave the E.U, if no trade deals have been struck.
It would be impossible he country to “cut and paste” its old E.U trade deals, Azevedo insisted. How strange and incompetent it would be if with the high chances of Britain leaving the E.U, no deal has been arranged on trade in the event of Britain leaving the E.U. It questions whether Britain would really enjoy freer trade if we leave the E.U- a dangerous scenario we should all dread. This shows an alarmingly shocking level of negligence and incompetence on the part of our government; for logic suggests that intelligent provisions should be made for the very probable scenario of us leaving the E.U.
The Leave camp has also rejected expert economic opinion that remaining in the European bloc is better for exporters, by arguing that membership brings punitive tariffs for much global trading as well as cumbersome regulation.
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As a continuing member of the WTO, trade with a wider array of countries would be freer and cheaper outside the E.U and this could even boost the economy in the longer term, they argue.
However, Azevedo, while acknowledging “Britain… will continue to be a member of the WTO”, warned the U.K would be in the “very unusual situation” of being “a member with no country-specific commitments”. He warns that such deals will need to be negotiated from scratch, stating that Britain lacks the “institutional mechanism” to conduct investigations into issues such as steel-dumping, which have for years been conducted at a European level.
Meanwhile, evidence of departing capital from the U.K ahead of this month’s referendum is already a sign of things to come if we leave the E.U. With no specific trade deals already negotiated, this means we are in real trouble if we leave; our only saving grace being the hope of a quick recovery from the high economic shocks to follow- which really is only a hope at best.
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