The latest ONS statistics blow a hole in the Remain camp’s fearmongering scare campaign to put Britain down. Outside of the EU the economy would prosper and the EU would continue to do business with the UK.
Instead of handing £350 million per week to Brussels the safe bet is to spend it on Britain. It only makes common sense, and will catapult Britain back into the super league of nations. The free trade zone from Iceland to Turkey is begging for British deals, and as the 5th largest economy in the world, we must capitalise on this.
Vote Leave on June 23 and we will.
The UK’s current account balance could be improved considerably if we Vote Leave. There is nothing to suggest this is weakening the currency.
- The UK recorded a current account deficit of £96.3 billion in 2015.
- This could be substantially reduced if we Vote Leave. In 2014 (the last year for which data are available) the UK recorded a £12.3 billion balance of payments deficit with the EU institutions. The figures released today showed the UK Government paid the EU institutions (net) £10.6 billion in 2015 (this figure excludes payments by the private sector to the EU institutions).
- This means we could substantially cut the balance of payments deficit if we voted to leave the EU.
- The EU-funded Oxford Economics group has concluded that if the UK voted to leave the EU, ‘In most cases (five out of nine), the UK’s trade balance improves’.
- There is no evidence that this is having a substantial effect on the currency or is driving movements in the foreign exchange markets. The pound has been strengthening against the US dollar over the last month from $1.3871 (26 February) to $1.4338 (today).
It is in the EU’s interests to get a free trade deal with the UK.
- In 2015, the UK recorded a £67.7 billion deficit in the trade of goods and services with the EU, up from £58.8 billion in 2014.
- This means that it is in the EU’s interests more than ever to get a free trade deal with the UK, as many pro-EU campaigners have acknowledged:
- The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said: ‘If we were outside the EU altogether, we’d still be trading with all these European countries, of course we would… Of course the trading would go on. Sometimes … There’s a lot of scaremongering on all sides of this debate. Of course the trading would go on’.
- The UK’s former Ambassador to the EU and leading supporter of BSE (Britain Stronger in Europe), Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, has admitted ‘there is no doubt that the UK could secure a free trade agreement with the EU. That is not an issue’.
- The pro-EU CBI has said ‘the UK is highly likely to secure a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, and such an agreement would be likely to be negotiated at an extremely high level of ambition relative to other FTAs’ .
- The pro-EU Centre for European Reform has accepted that ‘given the importance of the UK market to the eurozone, the UK would probably have little difficulty in negotiating an FTA’.
- HSBC has said ‘we think it is fair to assume that the UK and the EU would continue to enjoy thriving and tariff-free trade in goods’ (‘A very British dilemma’, February 2015, p. 2).
- The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond has admitted that a free trade agreement in goods ‘would be relatively simple to negotiate’.
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