The letters page of The Telegraph is a slightly surreal place most days. There are missives from all sorts of eccentric and extreme people, probably retired, and with only a shaky grip on the world as we know it. Such is this letter (HERE) from a Brian Clarke of London. He says "the EU is scared that Brexit will give Britain a competitive trade advantage" and has an "obsession" with preventing this as has been "well known for at least two years".
The whole idea of the Common Market and the single or internal market is to create a level playing field and prevent one country gaining a competitive advantage. If our car or chemical industry or financial industry moved to Europe because one or more countries decided they would offer a "competitive advantage" we would be the first to complain. This is not a secret obsession but the raison d'être of the EU, and the very foundation of the single market.
There is nothing to prevent us being competitive by offering excellent infrastructure or top quality educational attainment, but what Mr Clarke and the Brexiteers want is for taxes and environmental and social regulations to be slashed so we can avoid the hard work of being competitive on a level playing field. They want to take a land scraper to the playing field and create a slope in our favour.
But more than this, if I go to the WTO website (HERE) and look at the "What we stand for" page I note these statements:
"A country should not discriminate between its trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products, services or nationals".
"Lowering trade barriers is one of the most obvious ways of encouraging trade; these barriers include customs duties (or tariffs) and measures such as import bans or quotas that restrict quantities selectively".
"Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers should not be raised arbitrarily. With stability and predictability, investment is encouraged, jobs are created and consumers can fully enjoy the benefits of competition — choice and lower prices".
"Discouraging ‘unfair’ practices, such as export subsidies and dumping products at below cost to gain market share; the issues are complex, and the rules try to establish what is fair or unfair, and how governments can respond, in particular by charging additional import duties calculated to compensate for damage caused by unfair trade".
In other words even if we leave the EU we will still be bound by rules governing things which are deemed unfair. Every country wants fair trade on a level playing field. At the moment WTO rules don't include stuff like tax policy or environmental and social issues, but it will one day. As developing countries rise up the prosperity ladder and want better infrastructure, housing, healthcare, cleaner air and water they will need revenues and they too will adopt rules which are similar to, if not the same as, EU rules.
No country should want it's citizens involved in a race to the bottom. And neither should we.
