From: Steve Shaw - PM
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 08:54 AM
In what sense are we not already independent? The UK contributes 0.5%, half of one percent, of its total GDP to the EU. We are not in the eurozone. 95% of all laws pertaining to the EU have been fully agreed to by the UK and with around just 2% of EU laws are we in active disagreement. We buy more from them than they buy from us, and it's all tariff-free, and, in very round figures it amounts to about half of all our trade. We can and do trade with the rest of the world, but all thst will now have to be renegotiated. Cor, aren't we good at negotiating! The EU forms a powerful trading bloc that contains the UK population times eight. That's what we're ditching.

The EU does make a powerful trading block, but a trading block which has put 'protectionist' tariffs on the import of many basic foodstuffs which we could import at lower tariffs (WTO) if we were allowed to trade freely. Even without entering into negotiations with those exporting countries we could trade at WTO tariffs, and see a reduced cost of our foods.

"We buy more from them than they buy from us, and it's all tariff free" It's all tariff free when we buy it from (say) Germany, but if it originally sourced from outside the EU then any import tariff has already been paid in Germany, and has been accounted (as a mark up) for when setting the price that Germany will sell it at in order to make a profit.