Mutual commercial self-interest would ensure that trade between the EU and a post-withdrawal UK would be as free, if not more free, than it is at present, because:- Of the £426 billion of all UK imports (goods, services, income and transfers) in 2002, no less than £391 billion, or 92 per cent, were tariff-free. Of the £232.7 [...]
Tariffs (customs duties), are now very low and tending to zero. Of the £396 billion raised in taxes by the UK in 2002/3, under one half of one per cent - £1.9 billion - came from customs duties charged on imports under the EU Common External Tariff. Those customs duties were immediately handed on to Brussels. By [...]
(an updated version of Global Britain Briefing Note No.20 dated 31st July 2002) Government Statistics exaggerate the importance of the EU as a source of investment into the UK by 75 per cent. By Download Briefing Note: BN#32
British exports dipped in 2002 compared with 2001, reflecting the global economic slowdown. But imports, and the current account deficit, continued to grow. By Download Briefing Note: BN#31
"French GDP in the 1970s was 25 per cent higher than Britain's; now it is 9 per cent less" Nicolas Baverez, in La France Qui Tombe By Download Briefing Note: BN#30
