I assume the report (HERE) that we are considering joining NAFTA is either a wind-up or a pathetic attempt to put pressure on the EU negotiators. The USA suffers from some of the same problems as the UK - a sense that they are somehow exceptional and a leaning towards consumption rather than production. They have an even bigger problem with trade than we do, with imports running way ahead of exports, as they have for many years.
Their business practices are utterly ruthless with none of the social model and labour market standards that we are used to in Europe. In many fields they are years behind Europe. It would be a massive step backwards for us.
In my own field, of packaging machinery, trying to sell an American machine in the UK was nigh on impossible. Opening a drawing was a risk. If the client noticed the dimensions were in feet and inches it was usually enough to cut the meeting short. I assume American companies look at metric drawings with the same puzzlement.
Any advanced nation that clings to Imperial measures, much as some of our older leave voters would like us to return to them, is obviously on the wrong path in my opinion. Hitching our wagon to them would be disastrous. And farmers in the UK would be out of business before you could say chlorinated chicken.
How this would go down in the country?
Update: The Independent have an article by Barry Gardiner, a Labour MP about the absurdity of the UK joining NAFTA (HERE)
Update: The Independent have an article by Barry Gardiner, a Labour MP about the absurdity of the UK joining NAFTA (HERE)
