MEP says EU stifling UK's trade oppurtunities
11 February 2006
Speaking to an Economic Forum organised by the MBA Association in Belfast at the weekend, DUP MEP Jim Allister said one of the prices the UK was paying for EU membership was the inability to shape its trade policies to best exploit its trading opportunities throughout the world.
“As a Customs Union it is a condition of EU membership that each nation state surrenders control of their trade policy to Brussels. The EU then, on behalf of all, negotiates on trade matters – such as at the WTO talks – and, very importantly, only it can establish Free Trade Agreements with other countries. Significantly, the EU has failed to negotiate any such agreements with the UK’s traditional markets, the Anglosphere countries, like USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore. Thus the UK is heavily prejudiced because our level of trade with these countries is twice as great as from elsewhere in the EU. In 2003, for example, the USA, alone, accounted for 15.8% of British goods exports, while only 7.9% of the exports of the rest of the EU went to the US.
Given that level of existing trade, Free Trade Agreements with these Anglosphere countries would, for the UK, be of significant benefit. Yet EU membership conditions prohibit such. As a result the UK, traditionally a key trading nation, is losing out.”
Mr Allister went on to identify EU restrictions on “state aids”, particularly important in attracting inward investment, and the unbearable burden of regulation imposed by the rules governing the internal market, as high prices being paid by the UK and business for EU membership.
For greater detail on the effects of EU membership on UK trade, click on the following link http://www.jimallister.org/uploads/MEP_says_EU_stifling_UK_trade_oppurtunities_127.doc
