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Highlights include:
EU: Ban on livestock growth-boosters with hormonal, thyrostatic or beta-agonist effects (carcinogenic residue in meat).
UK: Aw come on - a little bit of cancer never hurt no-one.
EU: Don't add tartaric acid to wine. And here's how tariffs on grapejuice from 3rd countries should be calculated.
UK: We LIKE adding dodgy things to wine. And the French, Spanish and Italian winemakers should do what WE say!
That’s a distinct possibility. But if we’re not taken seriously by the EU, why would we be taken seriously by prospective trading partners such as China, the USA, India, etc.
I agree, which is why I think the best option now is to leave the EU and join EFTA (which gives us the option to join the EEA), which already has a trade deal with China. That is the closest option to the best of both worlds, EU affiliation including access to the single market, and the ability to make trade deals (if we are able to find some able negotiators, which we clearly don't have currently) with the rest of the world. If we choose not to join the EEA, we don't have to accept total free movement, as I understand it.
Plus it solves the Irish border problem.
I'm guessing the catch is, if it were that simple, why isn't the Government pushing for this? Can the EU block our application to rejoin EFTA? Presumably not, as EFTA is completely separate and independent of the EU.
His heart is in the right place - shame we can't say the same about his brain...
Technically yes. Only 40% of the EU budget goes towards subsidising inefficient farming methods, keeping prices artificially high and punishing 3rd world producers with tariffs, thereby further protecting the already subsidised farmers. That's either progress (it used to be 70%), or just dicking about, depending on your view.
The CFP is just plain ridiculous. Quotas mean that if you catch the wrong type of fish, you have to chuck the whole lot overboard (unless you're Spanish, in which case you ignore the quotas). How does that preserve stocks? How is a trawler captain supposed to know what is going to end up in his nets?
His heart is in the right place - shame we can't say the same about his brain...
Technically yes. Only 40% of the EU budget goes towards subsidising inefficient farming methods, keeping prices artificially high and punishing 3rd world producers with tariffs, thereby further protecting the already subsidised farmers. That's either progress (it used to be 70%), or just dicking about, depending on your view.
The CFP is just plain ridiculous. Quotas mean that if you catch the wrong type of fish, you have to chuck the whole lot overboard (unless you're Spanish, in which case you ignore the quotas). How does that preserve stocks? How is a trawler captain supposed to know what is going to end up in his nets?
There’s certainly scope to reform CAP more, but you can’t argue that it hasn’t been reformed and then agree that in pure budget terms it’s reduced the proportional budget by nearly 50%. There have been other reforms on top, and more to come no doubt.
If you want dicking around, compare the CAP reductions to the entire fishing industry economic contribution. CFP is a nice drum to beat for the nationalists, but ultimately meaningless in the whole scheme of the U.K. economy.
There’s certainly scope to reform CAP more, but you can’t argue that it hasn’t been reformed and then agree that in pure budget terms it’s reduced the proportional budget by nearly 50%. There have been other reforms on top, and more to come no doubt.
If you want dicking around, compare the CAP reductions to the entire fishing industry economic contribution. CFP is a nice drum to beat for the nationalists, but ultimately meaningless in the whole scheme of the U.K. economy.
I can't ultimately disagree with you, but I find it ironic that the EU is happy to hand out multi-billion Euro fines to companies for breaching competition rules, and bans governments from providing state aid to industry, and yet fails spectacularly to apply those same principles to the way they run their own operations.
His heart is in the right place - shame we can't say the same about his brain...
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