London negotiated the "worst trade deals in the world" after the UK's exit from the EU, claimed the founder of Save British Farming.
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    21·
    8 months ago

    “They negotiated trade deals which literally see us slaughtered,” she continued. “They’re the worst trade deals in the world.”

    I mean, the UK is a net food importer. Trade deals that lower the bar to obtain agricultural output are a plus for the UK, in aggregate. That was one of the few real arguments you could make, that the UK could lower the barriers to agricultural imports, whereas in general, it was hard to do in the EU.

    Doing so is bad for British farmers, sure, that’s zero-sum insofar as it’s just a transfer of wealth between British people eating food and farmers, but they permit leveraging comparative advantage in other countries, so you get economic efficiency gains.

    Like, the one group of economists that I saw that was arguing for Brexit was led by an economist specifically arguing on the point that it’d permit the UK lower barriers to agricultural imports more than the European Union Customs Union would permit for.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Minford

    A confirmed eurosceptic, he is a supporter of the Better Off Out campaign to leave the European Union because he believes that the net economic costs to Britain of its policies are substantial. He argues that they are in most respects contrary to free market principles and that British citizens had no power to alter them.[25] In 2016, Minford was a notable member of the Economists for Brexit group which supported the referendum campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.[26] He believes that Brexit could increase GDP by 6.8%,[27][28] and could reduce prices for British consumers.[29]

    I mean, I’m American, and I still went out and read his papers to see what people were arguing on both sides. If I were a British farmer and was thinking about Brexit and where I want my country to go and the impact it might have on my business, I’d damn well read what the material being put out is.

    I was skeptical that Minford is right that when you take into account all the pros and cons into account, that the UK is better-off out, but I don’t dispute that he’s right on being able to lower barriers to agricultural trade trade is more-favorable to the UK; if the UK could take that in isolation but otherwise be in the EU, sure, it’d be better-off. And what the UK is doing now is nothing compared to what he wanted to do – he was arguing for, in Brexit, unilateral elimination of all British import tariffs. You think that British farmers are seeing disruption under a few trade deals with major agricultural exporters, that’d be a heck of a lot more disruptive.

    • maynarkh@feddit.nlEnglish
      11·
      8 months ago

      it’d permit the UK lower barriers to agricultural imports more than the European Union Customs Union would permit for.

      Is this still about the shitty US chlorinated chicken that we’ve already had a long-ass trade war about?

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        3·
        8 months ago

        It was hardly a trade war. It was one MP that thought that maybe this would be a good idea and the US going “er, maybe”. The UK is such a non-market as far as the United States is concerned, especially once you calculate in all of the costs of shipping, that it was never really going to happen.

        The only real reason that it got brought up so much was that it was a good demonstration of the utterly delusional attitude of brexitiers. That somehow we’d be better off with lower food quality standards and that should be something we would celebrate. I do not think it got much further than the vague idea stage because it really wasn’t viable for the United States so they never agreed to it. No matter what some nutcase MP may have thought.

      • crispy_kilt@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        You don’t want chlorine in your food? Why do you hate freedom? Are you a communist?

        • Brexiteers, probably
    • vzqEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      deleted by creator

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    10·
    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    London negotiated the “worst trade deals in the world” after the UK’s exit from the EU, claimed the founder of Save British Farming.

    To the sound of car horns, Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers drove tractors in slow-motion through south London towards Parliament Square, where supporters awaited.

    “They’re not telling the truth,” said the founder of Save British Farming Liz Webster when asked by a BBC News reporter what she would say to claims by the government it backs farmers.

    Taking the country outside the bloc’s free trade zone and web of rules has left farmers grappling with bureaucratic headaches, exporting difficulties and labour shortages.

    Farmers in Poland, France and Germany have demonstrated against what claim is cumbersome bureaucracy, Brussels’ environmental policies and unfair foreign competition.

    A recent poll by Opinium found a clear majority of the British public now believes withdrawing from the European Union in 2020 was bad for the country’s economy.

    The original article contains 426 words, the summary contains 153 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!