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Does Britain Gain Or Lose From Leaving The European Union?

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Does Britain gain or lose from leaving the European Union?

On 23rd June 2016, more than 30 million people, 71.8% of the British population turned up to settle the question that had been looming around British politics for years: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

While 48.1% voted to remain a member of the European Union, a small majority of 51.9% voted to leave the European Union. British people voted in favour of leaving the EU in one of the ultimate applications of direct democracy that history has seen. So, does Britain gain or lose from leaving the European Union.

The word ‘gain’ refers to the advantages in any forms to Britain and the word ‘lose’ refers to the …show more content…

In addition, membership of EU Allowed Britain to have a direct say in drawing up trading rules. As a member state, Britain also benefits from trade deals between the EU and the rest of the world. The EU is currently negotiating with the US to create the world’s biggest free trade area. This could have been highly beneficial to British businesses. However, Britain now risks losing that negotiating power by leaving the EU. But, Britain would be free to establish its own independent trade agreements.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage suggests Britain could follow on the footsteps of Norway. Norway has access to single market but is not bound by EU laws on areas such as agriculture, justice and home affairs. Others however argue that it would not be as easy for Britain. The Economist says, “if Britain were to join the Norwegian club, it would remain bound by virtually all EU regulations”. And it would no longer have any influence on the regulations made. Boris Johnson also proposed a Canada-style trade arrangement of trade without tariffs. This again was quickly put aside by David Cameron at the time, who suggested that it would be years of painful negotiation and poorer deal.
Leave campaigners still argue that the majority of small and medium sized firms do not trade with the EU and yet they are restricted by unnecessary European regulations.

A study by think-tank Open Europe found that the UK economy could lose upto 2.2 percent of its total GDP by

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