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The Positive Brexit Thread

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6 minutes ago, SwindonCanary said:

Tony McDonough

@tonymc39

·

5h

As the Government prepares to create 10 new freeport zones around the UK, data shows Liverpool could see a £739m annual boost and the creation of up to 12,000 jobs - Liverpool Business News #freeports #Liverpool

Freeport plan could boost Mersey economy by £739m a year - Liverpool Business News

As the Government prepares to create 10 new freeport zones around the UK, data shows Liverpool could see a £739m annual boost and the creation of up to 12,000 jobs. Tony McDonough reports   Creating...

lbndaily.co.uk

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak has announced a ten week consultation to rapidly establish ten freeports across the UK, covering sea, air, and rail ports. The ports, once designated as free, will have no domestic taxes levied on any goods within them. Taxes will only be levied when a product leaves the freeport, and enters the rest of the UK…

This has the effect of encouraging international business to come to the UK to process or store goods with little to no red tape, bringing jobs and investment in the mainly coastal communities that have been neglected during the UK’s membership of the EU. Ten are set to be designated by the end of the year. Industry leaders have already started lobbying for freeport status…

  • A large North East ‘Virtual Freeport’:
    • The Port of Tyne, along with the Port of Blyth, Nissan, the British Ports Association and the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, has been pushing for a large North East ‘virtual freeport’.
    • CEO of Port of Tyne Matt Beeton said Government’s freeports consultation and commented: “A free trade zone targeted at growing the advanced manufacturing and renewable energy clusters would boost global trade across key North East locations – helping to secure existing supply chains and attracting many more in to the region from overseas.
  • Freeports in London and Scotland:
    • Chief Executive of the Forth Ports Group Charles Hammond said “Our network of international connections, streamlined customs systems and developable land close to key markets in the Central Belt of Scotland, Greater London and the South East mean our operations are ideal locations to support existing or fresh manufacturing and processing business opportunities.”
  • An Atlantic freeport in Wales’ Haven Waterway:
    • Andy Jones, Chief Executive of Wales’ largest port, Milford Haven said “A free trade zone covering the international businesses on the Haven Waterway will help them maintain competitiveness in a global marketplace. Our proposition will boost our unique engineering, fishing, marine renewable energy and oil and gas cluster for future generations.

 

 

Of course none of the above has any relevance to the UK leaving the EU according to our political comedienne, Hermione 🙃

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1 hour ago, Jools said:

The US model of free ports is certainly one to emulate and it reassures the UK won't be following EU regulations 👍 The results from the formers 250 free ports has seen manufacturing return with 500,000 jobs created 👍 17 UK ports are in deprived areas, so the benefits are obvious there 👍

 

Bumped for, Hermione...

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My God you are a boring, ill educated and unfunny man. At least you have Swindo backing you up. 🤣

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1 hour ago, Herman said:

Bumped for Swindo and Jools. Yes it involves reading but try it nonetheless. 

😀

I doubt you read it, Hermione, because if you had you would've seen the positives of these free ports greatly outweigh the negatives -- All policies/ideas come with pros & cons and the policies that pass are mostly the ones that have more advantages than disadvantages.

Read the explainer yourself and you will see the major disadvantages lie solely with the EU, not the UK.

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/trade-freeports-free-zones

Edited by Jools

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1 hour ago, Jools said:

Of course none of the above has any relevance to the UK leaving the EU according to our political comedienne, Hermione 🙃

Well @Jools, as ever just a little google proves you (and @SwindonCanary) wrong and @Herman right. Nothing to stop free ports in the EU, in fact there are a number https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/customs-procedures/what-is-importation/free-zones_en.

In 2012 the UK had 5, and indeed the Isle of Man still has one.

However they are problematic, and present a risk of crime, money laundering and tax avoidance. The job boasts are likely to be greatly overstated and it adds nothing the the UK's productive capacity.

Fact is there is raft of anouncements coming these days to keep you a Guido excited and distract from the real economy. None are likely to actually occur in the short term, or probably at all (another Boris bridge anyone?)

Edited by BigFish
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13 minutes ago, Jools said:

😀

I doubt you read it, Hermione, because if you had you would've seen the positives of these free ports greatly outweigh the negatives -- All policies/ideas come with pros & cons and the policies that pass are mostly the ones that have more advantages than disadvantages.

Read the explainer yourself and you will see the major disadvantages lie solely with the EU, not the UK.

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/trade-freeports-free-zones

Freeport.... Supporters argue that benefits can arise due to the government stimulus or tax breaks available. ...Economic studies have found the main advantage of freeports is that they encourage imports by lowering duty and paperwork costs. .... the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) cautions .... There is also a risk that freeports and zones don’t create new economic activity but rather divert existing business into the area with the allure of tax breaks – at a cost to the taxpayer in the form of lost revenue.

Ultimately, the UKTPO concludes that “whilst some form of free zones could help with shaping export-oriented and place-based regional development programmes, policymakers should (i) devise measures that counteract possible diversion of economic activity from elsewhere, and (ii) offer a wider set of incentives than just free zones, while keeping within the WTO [Word Trade Organization] and any ‘level playing field’ obligations that arise from our trade agreements.”

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5 minutes ago, A Load of Squit said:

That link explains that Johnson was lying (again) when he said it was the EU preventing us from having freeports.

The EU are against Free Ports, so he was following the EU's line, (2019) but now we are on our own we can do as we please

Edited by SwindonCanary

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12 minutes ago, SwindonCanary said:

The EU are against Free Ports, so he was following the EU's line, (2019) but now we are on our own we can do as we please

Well done, you have taken stupid to a new level.

 

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Brexit Factsheet Number 14,792:

Could the UK have created loads of free ports while it was a member of the EU? Yes

Why did it not do so? Because while freeports sound great, buccaneering mercantilism personified, the reality is they are a gimmick with at least as many downsides as advantages.

Why are they suddenly 'being proposed then? Because if you are cutting yourself off from the world's largest single market and about 70 immensely advantageous trade deals around the world, including with Japan, for example, then one way of pretending you are filling that enormous self-harming gap is come up with gimmicky notions that were rightly rejected when economic sanity prevailed.

Edited by PurpleCanary
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4 hours ago, Herman said:

You really are dead from the ears down. 

That is the most complimentary and positive post that Swindo will receive all year.

(I base that on the fact that the "alive" part, from the ears up reads the Daily Express. )

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6 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

Brexit Factsheet Number 14,792:

Could the UK have created loads of free ports while it was a member of the EU? Yes

 

'Could the UK have created loads of free ports whilst it was a member'? No, it wouldn't have been worth it because in addition to preventing its member-states from striking bilateral trade agreements with third countries, the EU makes innovative trade-boosting initiatives such as free ports difficult to establish in any meaningful way, through its Customs Union and the imposition of a Common Commercial Policy, Common External Tariff, and regulations designed to prevent one member-state from becoming more competitive than another. 

Purple Haze ~ 'Why are they suddenly 'being proposed then'?  Because Brussels also insisted that it was illegal for Britain to prepare for free ports before it actually left the EU...

... I wonder what they were/are so concerned about? 🤔

Must be the competition 😀

Edited by Jools

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44 minutes ago, Daz Sparks said:

That is the most complimentary and positive post that Swindo will receive all year.

(I base that on the fact that the "alive" part, from the ears up reads the Daily Express. )

I was assuming he had Spock like ears.😉

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1 minute ago, Herman said:

I was assuming he had Spock like ears.😉

Nay, that'll be one of your favourites, Caroline Lucas..

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40 minutes ago, Herman said:

I was assuming he had Spock like ears.😉

Scrap that anyway Herman, it's probably better if your brain is dead when reading the Daily Express.

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6 hours ago, SwindonCanary said:

All this free port stuff = maybe this will explain to those not bothering to look why it was out of the question before

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48868234

I'm afraid as usual with SwindonCanary the 'link' says no such thing. It's the reason why I gave up arguing with him months and months ago  -  SC post links that simply disprove his own statement!!!

In short there are 80 freeports already within the  EU - they have advantages and disadvantages - although when we are all in the same SM and CU their advantages diminish. Outside the EU in a self inflicted deleterious high tariff environment they have more uses - but will hardly 'threaten' the EU being by design 'outside' all and any tariff borders.  

Edited by Yellow Fever

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2 hours ago, Herman said:

😀 Well, yes, Hermo, it's certainly a fact that we're entangled in so much Brussels red tape and regulations that if we voted Leave it would take time to untangle and import controls were always going to be inevitable, but the 'Project Fear' diatribe of the government being paralysed, our economy destroyed, our children's futures ruined and World War III commencing were just a tad exaggerated, don't you think? 🤔

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12 hours ago, Jools said:

😀 The 'Project Fear' diatribe of the government being paralysed, our economy destroyed, our children's futures ruined and World War III commencing were just a tad exaggerated, don't you think? 🤔

If anyone had ever said that, yes. But maybe voices in your head did..... meanwhile we will see what the next few months brings as we do finally exit from EU rules (which everyone is doing business under) into the unknown. 

So do save the crowing until then. 

Edited by Surfer

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Jols will never admit that we've been lied to from the start. Just chuck him a few soundbites like red tape, a hint of nonsense like freeports and away he goes ,happy as Larry. 

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38 minutes ago, Herman said:

Jols will never admit that we've been lied to from the start. Just chuck him a few soundbites like red tape, a hint of nonsense like freeports and away he goes ,happy as Larry. 

What I don't get is the sources that quote, rarely will you see a link to a reliable unbiased publication that has shown even handed and balanced reporting or editorial comment in past.

The fact that Brexit is done doesn't seem to have sated their desire either, many seem as rabid as ever, quick to denounce sound reasoning and fact based writing. 

HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however for me, I still look for positives in what read, scant few to be found it has to be said, but I am looking for them. I also accept that it is done and hope that damage is limited.

Jools et al, revel in petty point scoring and I can't help but feel they do so from a position of "I'm alright Jack" or something similar. I get this feeling from other Brexiteers, those of which I know, and know to be largely unaffected by the consequences of Brexit.

I myself pray daily that the economy here in Little Britain doesn't veer into a deep recession and I keep my job and income at a level that can support my family.

 

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