ON TRADE after Brexit, I should like to make the UK Independence party’s position clear.
Norway is not Ukip’s blueprint on Brexit. It never has been — nor, for that matter, Switzerland either. Our position is that the UK, as the fifth-largest economy in the world, that runs a massive trade deficit with the EU, negotiates its own tailor-made agreement. If that is not forthcoming, the UK would trade with the EU, as do six of the top 10 exporters to the EU, and 11 of the top 20, under World Trade Organisation rules.
In 2014 China’s exports of goods to the EU were more than €302bn; the US’s were more than €206bn. By contrast the UK’s exports of goods to the EU in 2014, at euros 191 billion were significantly less. Neither China nor the US currently have a trade agreement with the EU. They trade under WTO rules.
A country does not need to be a member of the EU nor even have a trade agreement with the EU in order to have “access” to the EU’s single market.
William Dartmouth MEP, Ukip National Spokesman on Trade, EFDD Group Co-ordinator on International Trade
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