Who Wins with WTO Tariffs?

The fifth column of Remainers never seem to lose an opportunity to point out the importance of concluding a deal with the “single market” and warn of the danger of otherwise having to rely on World Trade Organisation rules for the conduct of our trade.

In 2015, according to the ONS, 44% of the UK’s goods and services were exported to the EU whilst 53% of our imports came to the UK from the EU.  The value of UK exports to the EU was £223.3 billion whilst the value of imports from the EU was £291.1 billion.

Assuming no single market deal and, for example, a uniform tariff of 6% levied on everything coming in together with the same tariff being charged on everything we sell, our imports would yield revenue of £17.466 billion whilst we would have to pay the EU £13.398 billion on our exports.

So, relying on uniform WTO rules, UK would be 17.466 – 13.398 = £4.068 billion each year to the good on the trading account with the EU.

That is £4.068 billion per year that we would not have to borrow from overseas investors who, for the time being, are keeping UK in business by financing our huge current account deficit.

Surely, even the Wallonian Parliament could do the math?

PS, as John Redwood points out in his Blog on 20 October -

"They still seem unable to grasp that there is no such thing as the Single Market detached from the full panoply of EU laws and policies which a state can belong to, nor that the debate is only about access to each other’s markets which should be relatively straightforward"