Brexitexit?

I'm not going to go into the nightmare of negotiating, dotting the I's and t's on every single individual trade deal. Suffice to say it's a ****ing nightmare. Not to mention the time involved in negotiating them all.

There's a very good reason the EU are by far our biggest trading partner. It's close with a common time zone, it's rich. It conforms to the rule of law as we understand it. It has a highly liquid and easily tradeable currency. And the infrastructure, supply chains, etc, are all there and working fine.


Breaking into new markers is notoriously difficult. The days of ensuring we get a good deal with a gunboat in the background are gone. These days trading partners have to be wooed and can extract a heavy price for their business.

As to the currency decline, that would be fine if we were an export based economy. We're not and haven't been for a long time. We're an import based economy, meaning we import more than we export. The result of that is being seen now by imported inflation.

Maybe you're ok in Africa, but for the domestic Brit inflation is now at 3% and rising, wage inflation is 2.1% and stuck. Meaning their disposable income has shrunk.

 

But atleast we control our fahking borders......

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Just kidding....

The only reason trading with outsiders has been difficult though, is because outsiders have had to negotiate with the EU if they want to trade with the UK, and the EU are hapless ****ing morons.
Negotiating with us direct will probably bear much more fruit, again ,provided we dont have a government of ****tards in power, which we currently do...

 

So we won't get trade deals and we'll be out of the EU as well? Great...

 

One that springs to mind immediately is EU embargos on selling ex military vehicles to certain African countries. Get me right, I'm not looking to buy tanks or field guns, things like fuel trucks, fork lifts, transport lorries, recovery vehicles etc. can be bought cheaply at auction in the UK but an export permit to the DRC is impossible to come by. Get rid of silly regs like that that and I'd be putting a couple of million a year in the MOD's coffers. We still end up with ex MOD kit but it has to go through middle men in Tanzania or South Africa so they make all of the profit and Britain loses out. I cant even buy a bloody ex MOD Toyota HiLux for export.

Other things like getting nuclear density meters serviced are such a pain due to regulation it's not worth even trying. I'm talking low grade nuclear here, not serious stuff. There are companies in the UK that service and leak test Troxlers etc. but it's generally easier to send them elsewhere.

Companies like Bureau Veritas make a living out of inspecting goods for export to ensure that bloody EU rules are not being broken. A BV certificate can take weeks and also cost an arm and a leg. It makes it very difficult to do business. Yes, many African countries require a BV certificate for importation but this can generally be circumnavigated by paying an enhanced import duty. Often time is the most important thing. The UK once had an excellent chemical industry but if I needed a few hundred tonnes of sodium cyanide, even if I could buy it in the Europe I wouldn't bother because I know I could get it quicker from China because they will not ask half as many questions. You pay for it and it is shipped. The same with explosives, not serious stuff, just dynamite and detonators. The EU want to know what you are going to do with it, how you are going to transport it, how you plan to protect it from falling into the wrong hands etc. They want a paper trail. The Chinese just sell it to you. Once you've paid they ship it. If we could cut out all of the bloody red tape the world is out there waiting to trade.

 

That all sounds like not wanting to sell dangerous **** to unstable countries, though.
They've clearly gone too far with some of it, but China's the opposite extreme, where they'll just sell you absolutely anything.
I know which one I'd expect the Tories to go towards, if the EU didn't have anything in place to prevent it.

 

I am not an unstable country, I am an engineer/ gold miner who works in an unstable country. I agree China has gone to the other extreme but saying the EU has clearly gone too far is the understatement of the century. Has it made the EU any safer? No it hasn't. The local Mwami (tribal chief) here was doing business with a Russian arms dealer buying AK's and decided to bump the Russian for the final consignment. Where did the Russian choose to assassinate him? Eastern Congo? Kinshasa? No, fekking Brussels!

I hope the Tory government will open up our trade with the rest of the world, however, I am concerned that our current dire leader would adopt EU regs and consider the job done. One has to push the boat out a bit and sell things to certain countries that they can't buy elsewhere, but that opens markets to many run of the mill exports and makes friends in developing countries. Verbal agreements and handshakes generally still work better than restrictive legislation. With friendship comes, mining rights, investment opportunities, in other words the opportunity to get something in return for all of the international aid that we quite rightly we dish out, rather than let the EU take credit for it. Nevertheless, with friendship comes influence, and if we can help developing countries to do things in a civilised manner, the world will be a better and safer place for everyone. As a part of Europe we have lost our way and totally lost our influence in most of the developing world.

 

Soft power's important, but we don't get it by acting like China and Russia. That just keeps the world in a really ****ty place.
I understand that it must be frustrating for you, but then you bring up a local guy that tried to steal from a Russian arms dealer and got assassinated!

It's a complicated issue, but the main problems are fine tuning policies and regulations, while addressing corruption.
The latter's clearly something that's damaging to the EU, the UK and Africa, to varying levels. It always will be.
How does anything get done about it right now? No ****ing idea!

 

@Big Ern

What did I ****ing tell you?

 

It's very difficult. A benevolent dictator is possibly the answer for African countries. Africans tend to like a strong leader. I've used the example of Paul Kagame elsewhere, but IMHO he is doing an excellent job in Rwanda. In Europe and the UK, more local autonomy and minimise levels of government. Harsher penalties for law breakers may also help, we let people who break the law get off far too lightly. Prison should not be enjoyable, when one leaves one should not want to return. It needs to be a deterrent, not an occupational hazard. Furthermore, many people sent to prison should not be, i.e. drug users who do not harm others. In the same vein, many people who are not sent to prison should be, drunk drivers, fraudsters, even some computer hackers. However, if the answers were easy we wouldn't have the issues.

 

Actually the west could learn a lot from how
China operates in Africa. They don't pump money
into the bank accounts of corrupt politniks nor
equip/fund their armies. Their money goes into
infrastructure projects (transport, utilities, telecoms etc) .

Thus earning the native goodwill to get access to
the mineral resources they desire.

 

Our criminal justice system needs to establish a better balance between punishment and rehabilitation.
It appears to be doing neither well at the moment, so the career criminals don't care and petty criminals just get stuck in a loop.
The current lot will just sell it all off and wash their hands of it, though.

 

Very true but it is generally because the money is independent investment rather than governmental.

 

We don't invest in our own infrastructure, never mind someone else's!

 

It's a little different in Africa, you need roads to import chemicals and equipment and railways to export iron ore and other concentrates. In the UK we already have roads and railways. Here the only railways you will find were built by the British in colonial days (save a few recent Chinese ones) and most roads have not been maintained since the colonists left. If you think our roads are bad, visit the DRC. The first time you come you will think you have entered a war zone.

 

Er... aren't bit of it an actual war zone?

 

How does that work then?

 

The main thing is, can Sunderland still sign Jari Litmanen next summer?

 

I have pondered this question for some time now.

After long, careful and due consideration, I have come to the conclusion that I honestly couldn't give a flying **** one way or the other.

 

lol, I was gonna quote your post yesterday and admit my short-sightedness.

 

to be fair if it's the DRC, you probably have entered a warzone. I'm not surprised, I've known a few Congolese, lived with some, the way they speak and come across can make asking the time seem like a challenge to a duel.