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originally posted by: teapot
a reply to: angelchemuel
Brussels are referring to contracted arrangements and refer to 'grants' for agriculture. When many are fully aware, CAP is all about the EU paying British farmers to not farm, we can see this is all bluff and bluster bull#.
As nett contributors, we can use the savings of not paying in to protect our research programmes, ensure students complete their educations and assist farmers in bringing land back into production. And still have some money left to prevent and reduce malnutrition, child poverty and deaths of people living on the streets.
UK may never recover £1.2bn invested in EU Galileo satellite system
The UK may never claw back £1.2bn of investment in Galileo, the EU’s satellite navigation system, as Theresa May officially pulled the plug on UK defence and security participation in the system after Brexit.
Galileo, developed as a rival to the US GPS system, is due to be launched in 2020 with civilian and military variants. The UK’s continued involvement, given the extent of British funding of the system, has been at the centre of some of the bitterest rows of the Brexit negotiations.
Britain has already contributed £1.2bn to the creation of Galileo, which has an overall cost of £9bn, but the EU has begun to exclude Britain from the security aspects of its development.
www.theguardian.com...
Given all the deflection and secret reporting embargo's, I think the UK should just walk away. Let the EU, any of it's emissary or commercial elements that believe we owe them something, pursue their self perceived interests in the correct legal form and sue us.
Don't panic! We can avoid £39bn divorce bill and EU tariffs, insists Tory MEP
BRITAIN could have a "managed no-deal" for at least two years, with no EU tariffs while avoiding paying the £39billion divorce bill to Brussels, a memo to Cabinet ministers reveals.
The memo by Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman, a senior member of the European Parliament trade committee and leading Brexiteer, says the UK could invoke Article 24 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). That allows the UK and EU to continue to trade tariff-free for exceptional reasons, such as national security, and would take two years to challenge in the World Trade Organsisation international court, giving the UK and EU time to strike a free trade deal.
Sources say the proposal is favoured by Cabinet Brexiteers Penny Mordaunt and Andrea Leadsom, and has won key support in Brussels.
Mr Campbell Bannerman wrote: "This approach would continue the pre-March 29 status quo in trading arrangements and patterns without interruption, justified by an explicit provision of the WTO regime.
"An interim agreement would therefore be an important component of a 'managed no-deal' outcome from March 29, creating a space for negotiations to be reset and recommended on the basis of reaching a Super-Canada trade treaty."
Separately, Mr Campbell Bannerman has issued a warning over the UK adopting a Norway solution of staying in the customs union and single market.
Would mean Britain being powerless to avoid being dragged into EU trade wars, such as the one brewing between the bloc and South Asia over a ban on palm oil.
"The Norwayplus option means decisions made in Brussels, which we cannot control, will dictate our trade policy, dragging us into their trade wars without a means of escape.
www.express.co.uk...
Hold your nerve May and Australia will be OPEN for free trade, says ALEXANDER DOWNER
The former Australian Commissioner
As outside observers, we weren’t confused about what Brexit meant. We thought it meant leaving the political and economic structures of the EU. Surely, no-one on this planet thought leaving the EU meant leaving the political institutions - the European Council, the Parliament, the Commission, the Court of Justice and so on - but staying in the economic arrangements - like the customs union and the single market.
As the Australian High Commissioner, I sat through Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech.
Perfect, I thought. Countries like Australia, America, Japan and so on would be able to negotiate free trade agreements with the UK and the UK would also have a free trade agreement with the EU.
It was common sense that the UK could have it’s own immigration policy; the British Government would decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.
At that speech, I noticed something ominous. It’s normal to applaud speeches at their conclusion.
It’s polite. On that day, two years ago, not one EU ambassador applauded. That, I thought, spells trouble.
It’s been downhill ever since.
We Australians now can’t see how we will ever be able to negotiate a free trade agreement with the UK. The same for America, Japan, China and so on.
Here’s why. The EU told the British government that it couldn’t leave the EU economic arrangements until it said so. In other words, Great Britain would be locked in to EU economic rules and regulations for as long as the EU wanted.
Well, the House of Commons voted that down. But what next? The Tory remainers, the Labour Party, the SNP and the Lib-Dems want to lock the UK into the EU economic arrangements and Labour - not the others - are happy for the UK to leave the EU decision making bodies!
We Aussies call it as it is. THATS A SCANDAL
Labour’s position reduces what was once the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to being an economic colony of the EU. Under Labour’s plan, the EU will decide the UK’s trade policy. The British public will just have to suck it up.
The greatest pluses are that the UK can gain a competitive advantage by being the bastion of free trade.
We in the Commonwealth would love that. We’d open our markets to British companies, to your farmers, your car makers, your whisky distilleries and your finance companies.
And we’d provide British consumers with plentiful cheap, high quality goods and services to enhance their living standards.
www.express.co.uk...