Remainer MPs’ nonsense about EU’s Customs Union? The perfect example

Yesterday the UK signed a ‘roll-over agreement’ with a country which has an EU trade deal

Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb yesterday, with Georgian Foreign Minister © HMG

“Georgia, Georgia. Just this old, sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind”

During all the hullabaloo in Parliament yesterday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab signed an agreement between the UK and Georgia.

Georgia is one of the few countries on the EU’s list of trade agreements it has negotiated. The EU Commission is the only organisation which can do trade deals – the UK is prohibited from doing so whilst a member of the EU.

The UK will also be prohibited from doing so even if we leave on 31 October. The UK government will not be able to implement any new trade deals until 01 Jan 2021 at the earliest, and this will almost inevitably be after 01 Jan 2023.

The new deal with Georgia will come into force whenever the UK finally leaves the EU after the anticipated ‘Transition Period’.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

“Georgia on my mind”?

21 Oct 2019 : UK signs ‘roll-over’ continuity deal with Georgia
This is one of the ‘trade deals’ which the EU trumpets that it has successfully negotiated
It is one of the deals which Remainer MPs were worried about losing, if the UK leaves the Customs Union
Whilst in the EU’s Customs Union, only the EU has the right to do these deals
In 2018 this deal was worth precisely £52 million to the UK economy (exports minus imports)

Here are the simple facts

EU and Georgia signed an ‘Association Agreement’ which entered into force on 1 July 2016
From 2016 to 2018, UK exports to Georgia fell by 40%
Last year (2018), UK exports to Georgia were only £64 million
That’s not even 0.02% of total UK exports

Meanwhile in 2018, the rest of the EU exported goods to Georgia
to the value of €2.1 billion

What the UK government said yesterday

Yesterday in London, the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stated:

“The signing of this agreement gives British exporters and consumers the certainty they need to continue trading freely with Georgia, as the UK prepares to leave the EU. It underlines the significance of our strong ties with Georgia and will ensure that our political and trade relationship continues to flourish.”

And finally...

Yes, we know that the song “Georgia on my mind” was written about the US southern state of Georgia, not the former Soviet state of the same name. Nevertheless it’s a good excuse to watch the great Ray Charles singing this live. The great man is here.

Observations

We wish to imply no disrespect to Georgia at all by the article above. Good relations with Georgia are of course important, as they are with any country.

This article simply highlights the nonsense talked by Remain MPs about the EU Customs Union, and about which most of them have very little knowledge.

Why did Dominic Raab even bother with this yesterday?

Remain MPs have been constantly claiming that the UK will lose out in world trade by no longer being part of the EU’s trade deals. The simple fact is the most of these ‘trade deals’ do not benefit the UK to any measurable extent at all.

Nevertheless, the government has been forced to spend time on the infinitesimally small ‘trade deals’ which the EU claims to have done, and so they have been forced to tick them off to counter Remainer MPs’ absurd statements.

We invite Remain MPs to answer these questions :-

Why doesn’t the EU have a trade deal with the world’s largest economy, the USA, after 60 years?
Why doesn’t the EU have a trade deal with the world’s 2nd-largest economy, China, after 60 years?
Why is the provisional trade deal with Canada still not ratified, 15 years after starting negotiations?
Where are the EU’s trade deals with the other major economies of India, Brazil, Russia, and Australia?

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[ Sources: Foreign & Commonwealth Office | Department for International Trade | ONS | EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, 22 Oct 2019

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Reader Comments 4

1. Patrick F , Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 06:43:

Dear Facts4eu,
I forwarded your questions to the European (Union) Department of Trade's Commissioner Christine Lefrites and here are her answers:
1. We need greater clarity.
2. We need even more clarity.
3. We've lost the file.
4. We have begun the 60 year process of can kicking whilst we recruit translators who are fluent in Indian, Brazilian, Russian and Australian.
Yours etc
Ronnie Remainer MEP

2. Concerned , Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 07:12:

Indeed I find the remainer westminster swamp truly pathetic. With their actions and refusal to exit the eu cleanly as the 2016 referendum mandated, they have made the UK the laughing stock of the world.
Not only that but on 1st November the country doesn't have control of its defence or secret service both lose control to the eu.
Seriously have we just lost a war? It feels like it.

3. tarien , Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 11:10:

Can we still get out without a deal? If so could we stick two fingers up at the EU and its hold on Britain and trade on with whom we like? 'Who stands if Freedom falls? Who dies if England Lives?' We who are British will die if we don't get away from the terrible war that will soon engulf us all. Seriously, matters of great concern against the controlling factors currently operating in our world-one sees the probabilty of mass destruction of civilisation as we know it, if the wrongs and great concerns are not addressed and uregently. Example-Millions of immigrants are continually massing along the North African coast line, preparing to invade Europe-it is unsustainable to expect the countries of the EU inc UK, to absorb these peoples without considering the destruction to our cultures and Ideologies. Even now Chancellor Merkel has cliamed that Multiculturalism is not working in her country-nor indeed elsewhere as much as our dulpicitous media would claim otherwise.

4. L Jones , Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 20:18:

Tarien -you are right-thinking. We can get out without a deal. It's only that our ''rulers'' have bamboozled us into thinking we can't possibly get away without a trade deal. That the EU has to be paid £39 billion so that they can think about talking trade.
How outrageous is all this? We don't NEED a ''deal'' to escape. They want us to think we do.

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