The words of Captain James T Kirk came to mind when thinking about the possibility of a Brexit; “To boldly go where no one has gone before” well not strictly true, Greenland did leave in 1985, however, not from the EU, but the EEC.
As far as I am aware I cannot recall any BBC or ITV news announcement saying that we have secured a large contract with any company or government that was linked to the Klingon Empire. Joking aside, the economy is far too serious, and important to risk on a whim and a prayer.
All of the facts offered by both sides have been manipulated, either slightly or hugely. The one key fact that cannot be changed or argued about is the amount of commerce, both by products or services that the UK economy generates with the Eurozone. If we stay in, this will grow, slightly, I would think; but if the Brexit becomes a reality, business will drop by quite a large margin, as tariffs will be implemented.
This will affect both UK companies as well as European countries. The fact that about 40% of Swedish exports arrive in the UK will shock many. If we take this a stage further, if the UK had problems with a large market, it would naturally make companies look to other countries for exports. That is natural, but the crucial matter is they will also look to others for their imports. That’s just the way of life.
Countries and business will say, why look to the UK for new products to import as they have treated us so poorly. The loss of the British market will not make them feel warmly to us at all, quite the opposite I would imagine. There are certain EU countries that will relish the opportunity to ensuring that any trade agreement with us will takes years and years, to give their own economies the chance to grow and capture markets, where we used to be the major players. If you start to then look as the other EU countries that a Brexit would affect, the figures start to look quite scary.
Some people will say, it is all ok, look what Canada has achieved with the EU. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a freshly negotiated EU-Canada treaty, but, and it is a very big but, this has taken 7 years and still it is not quite not quite finalised. If you think we can survive well for seven years without our largest market, I doubt your sanity.
Mr Gove this week said that he saw an “independent” Britain alongside Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Ukraine. I respect him for being honest, but if Mr Gove thinks we will be on the same level as these nations, no disrespect to them, but it would be similar to dropping from the Premier League to say the Vauxhall Conference.
At the moment, the UK received the largest inward direct foreign investment within the EU. Let me clarify this, this is not just EU firms moving into Britain, but large Asian companies, moving their manufacturing to the UK precisely due to the fact that we have full access to the huge EU market. If we leave, you can naturally expect that the investment will drop, and eventually, those companies would relocate in the new EU market.
As a leading European Equipment leasing broker, we firmly believe that we are better staying within the EU, not to say that it is perfect by a long way, but the financial gamble is far too large to risk.
Whatever happens in the weeks ahead let me end with these words, ” Live long and prosper”!