Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

Angela Merkel has cancelled talks among EU ambassodors about
Brexit progress due to there being nothing to talk about?
Perhaps they are coming round to our point of view at last??
We have talked about nothing for 4 years so whats new??

Donkeyman! 👍👍😁😁👍👍

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

The ambassadors were intended to talk about the progress in trade talks, and the direction those were heading. Since there is naught movement, there is no reason to spoil time of ambassadors on the subject.
The UK (parliament) talked about nothing amongst themselves for 4 years. The EU is not that stupid. It simply moves on.

Let's hope this standstill lasts till after the deadline in october. No better way to find out what brexit means to all parties concerned.

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

She's just realised that Barnier has achieved nothing and screwed up Germanys car industry. Thanks to him Merkels cars are now 10% more expensive and food is cheaper for us to import from everywhere else.

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

That's the problem with you british, lingering in imperial days. You think negotiation is a one-sided action but it takes two to negotiate.

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

I'm surprised to find you in here Solasch.........

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

For once we are in complete agreement Solly, except tha both sides
are guilty of time wasting !!

Donkeyman! 👍👍

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

Remember the 2year deadline of article 50 ended on 29 march 2019. And you could have left before that date if you had agreed with the version of the withdrawal agreement theresa may refused in 2018 and that was later taken out of the wastebin by boris and hailed as his new deal...

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

Hi

Not exactly.

A far higher % of UK cars are exported to the EU than EU Cars are exported to the UK.

This will hurt us more than them.

Tariffs on Japanese cars are not being reduced until 2026 inline with the EU/Japan FTA.

As far as food is concerned, that is very much a double edged sword.

Yes, we will get cheaper lamb and beef imports from Australia and New Zealand.

This will impact on British Farmers.

Transport costs will impact on Fruit and Veg.

Around a third of UK produced meat we export to the EU, the bits we do not eat.

These will also get hammered with Tariffs, as will fish.

We do not eat most of the fish the EU Catch in our Waters, we like cod and haddock.

More importantly we are not currently subject to sanitary checks and paperwork, which are going to add a fortune to our export costs.

Leaving was about no longer being part of the EU, it was always going to be a Financial Hit.

40%of our Exports are going to be hit in one form or another.

A price worth paying in my view, to suggest we are going to be better off immediately is a Nonsense.

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

A few points of clarification ...

1. Imports and Exports

In 2018, UK car imports from the EU were around £47 Billion whereas UK car exports to the EU were around £17 Billion.

Although the % of cars exported as a total of UK car production to the EU may be more than the same statistic for the EU, the sheer volumes in terms of numbers produced and total revenues show a completely different picture. It's a bit like saying 80% of my guitars are Fenders where in the Guitar shop only 20% are. But I only have 10 guitars where the guitar shop has 5000 so the percentages your quoting doesn't give a true reflection.

Here is another statistic - the UK employs 166,000 people in the motor industry compared to 820,000 in Germany alone.

And another one, Germany produces 5 million cars a year, where the UK produces around 1.5 million.

So you can see, quoting "A far higher % of UK cars are exported to the EU than EU Cars are exported to the UK" isn't helpful in the broader scheme of things.

2. "Tariffs on Japanese Cars are Not Being Reduced to Zero Until 2026".

True.

We are also not part of the EU and working on our own FTA with Japan. Putting this aside, remember, a lot of Japanese cars are made in the UK anyway so we can buy domestically from Nissan and Toyota (and some Suzuki cars) here tarrif free regardless of what tariffs are put on cars in the EU or Japan. This will not "hurt us more than it will hurt them at all", see my next point.

3. Car Purchases

What you have also not included in your post is the relative cost of a German car vs a Japanese or Ford car. German cars are mostly premium brand top quality vehicles from the prestige brands such as Mercedes, Porsche, BMW and Audi (also VW, Skoda which are derivatives of the premium brands - they share a lot in common in their design and also their price).

Tariffs have never been a deciding factor for consumer choice, but price definitely is, so I'll use the example below to illustrate what this means...

For a UK customer .. If, a 10% tariff was applied car imports from the EU, and we use the most popular BMW vs the most popular Toyota / Nissan / Ford as an example, the higher priced car (the BMW) would go up in total price by around 10% where the Toyota/Nissan/Ford would not change. As these cars are similar quality and offer the same levels of trim, safety, economy etc, the justification to pay an extra (around 2.5 - 3K+) for the BMW when its already more expensive than the equivalent Toyota/Nissan/Ford anyway.

The other part of this is that, for UK buyers a Jaguar/LandRover becomes a much more favourable option too.



For an EU customer ... If the 10% tariff was applied to the Toyota/Nissan/Ford then as these are lower priced cars than the BMW/Mercedes equivalents anyway, it would not make much of a difference to EU buyers because even with the 10% tariff, the Toyota/Nissan/Ford would be still the cheaper option.

4. Car Leasing
Most companies offer a £500 per month allowance or a budget of around £350 a month for employee company cars. Looking at the prices on the internet, a 10% increasing in lease costs would put the more expensive German cars outside the monthly allowances, favouring cheaper Fords, Toyotas, Nissans, Vauxhalls. Especially with electric cars now becoming more popular, there now an incentive for businesses to take advantages of tax incentives and go for electric cars. Germany has little choice with electric cars and one of the big selling points of German reliability (the engine) is not much of a deciding factor when it comes to electric car buying choice, it is more to do with battery life and range.

^^ not an exact science but worth noting - I did a quick check on a BMW 320 vs a Vauxhall Insignia - the BMW would be out of the price range with a 10% increase where the Insignia would be within the price. I would imagine a Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Ford would be within the budget too. I didn't look at Jaguar / Landrover equivalents .....

5. Food Imports
We will grow more home grown produce as landowners who have been subsidised by the EU CAP will start to farm produce on land that has been put aside for years. We can also subsidise our own farmers to encourage British produced lamb, beef, pork etc to not only generate jobs, wealth and tax revenues, but also make the UK more self sufficient and provide export markets where they don't exist (much) before.

Secondly, we can buy from other markets on better trading terms than the EU tariffs. Countries such as Japan and the USA offer us enormous benefits in food imports, as does Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Don't forget, the rest of the Commonwealth is an enormous market for us too.

Food in the EU is way over priced due to non-tarrif barriers that increase cost due to the increased levels of bureaucracy and stupid standards. Reducing the dependency on the EU for our food imports is a great opportunity to avoid shortages (as we see when Dover-Calais goes on strike or bad weather stops the ferries) and, of course pandemics such as COVID-19.

In both these situations, for the EU to compete with the rest of the world now we have left the EU and maintain it's levels of exports with the UK, it needs to either :

1. Reduce its unit prices - in which case the EU will see unemployment increase, wages decrease and receive less tax revenues.

2. Subsidise its own businesses - which it can't do due to it's own state aid rules (we can from 1st January 2021).

3. Keep the UK in the EU - which it can't because we already left.

Happy Friday !

Re: Merkel scrubs brexit talks!

Hi

Thanks for your comprehensive reply.

A few points.

The EU is a much bigger economy than the UK, so the effects will be less.

The 10% Import Tariff is on the base price, which is much less than the Retail Price.

Secondly, 40% of UK Car Production is exported to the EU, only 12% of EU Car Production is exported to the UK.

So, the effect on our car industry will be 3 times greater than the effect on the EU.

Your reply mentioned Ford.

They do not build any cars in the UK, they produce engines here, which are not subject to 10% tariffs.

Germany and France own their car manufacturers, we do not own ours, we have sold them off.

Even Rolls Royce and Bentley are German Owned.

As regards food production, we import vast amounts from the EU.

This makes sense as transport costs are far less than other Countries outside the EU simply due to proximity.

In order to protect our Food Supply our published Tariffs are minimal, you can check this online.

It will have minimal effect on EU Food Imports.

We will not suddenly start producing more, we are already very efficient at farming.

We cannot compete with EU Vegetables, they have a much lower land cost base and better weather, reducing production costs.

We are not going to suddenly start eating vast amounts of tripe, haslet, liver etc which we export to the EU.

As regards fish, we are not going to suddenly start eating vast amounts of mackerel, herring, megrim etc.

As regards the Trade Deal, we will have to wait and see who blinks first.

Leaving was not about money, at least not in my view.

Leaving was because of the way the EU was going, which I want no part of.