This is about our friend John Longworth, former Director of the British Chambers of Commerce and now part of Leave means Leave, a pro Brexit lobby group. Leave means Leave wrote to all 27 EU members Chambers of Commerce asking them to put pressure on their governments to allow free trade to continue. This was last November (see HERE).
One has to question the sanity of Longworth. He campaigned to leave as vigorously as anyone and cheered to the rafters when leave won last year's referendum. But obviously mindful of the damage about to be caused to British industry he is now asking (begging) other Chambers of Commerce to help us because trade barriers would have a "detrimental effect". He does not seem to realise these people were formerly our friends but Brexit has recast them as our competitors and it would be crazy of them to offer us any help at all. I note there has been no publicity about the replies Longworth received so I assume they were all negative or he didn't get many.
We may be a significant trading partner but EU industry will know better than anyone how weak a position we are in. If the UK erects tariff barriers it will probably hurt UK consumers. Our need and appetite for European goods is such that it will not be impacted by tariffs. German quality already commands a premium anyway. The big question for Mr Longworth is will Europe's appetite for British goods be the same? I am not convinced.
