What Are The Competing Perspectives On Britain's Continuing Trade Outside Of The European Union?

Since 1973 when the British first joined the European Union their membership has been a controversial issue. When conservatives in the United Kingdom won the general election in 2015, their election manifesto promised to hold a referendum on whether or not the United Kingdom should stay or leave the European Union. The referendum also referred to as “Brexit” is scheduled to take place by the end of 2017. The United Kingdom initially joined the union to be part of the common market for the purpose of trade and to develop international relationships. The main argument for those who are pro Brexit is that being part of the European Union is too costly for the United Kingdom, that the EU has grown to large, has interfered to far into

This report will look at the benefits and issues surrounding the UKs decision to remain as a member state of the European Union (E.U.). Along with the newly elected conservative government, came the announcement that a nationwide referendum would be held, by the end of 2017, in order to determine the British public’s stance on the issue of EU membership.

The UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973. When the EU was formed in 1993, the European Economic Community was renamed the European Community and added into the EU’s systems. There was never a formal vote on whether or not the UK should join the EU, but any sort of polling having to do with it yielded support for the movement.

The European Union was established as an economic and political partnership between 28 European Countries (European Union, 2015). The UK has been stayed in the EU for over four decades from 1973 to now. In 1975, Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson had ever held a referendum on Britain’s membership in the EU and the voting result is to stay in the European Community. Recently, the article (BBC NEWS, 2015) reported that the UK has a plan to hold the second referendum by the end of 2017 to decide whether or not the UK should stay in or leave the European Union. This might be a significant referendum that may bring lots of impacts on the UK’s economy.

Throughout history, countries have made agreements and alliances in order to improve their economy, their government, and their international trading. Countries must decide whether an agreement will be beneficial for the country in the long run or if it will have more of a negative effect on their economic and trade relations than a positive one. Two of the most significant international agreements that have been made in history are the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement. These agreements are two examples of how international agreements positively affect countries and their economic status. The EU is a political and economic union of 28 European members of state, which the United Kingdom is currently departing from.

As well as this, the UK would be able to join organisations that they are currently unable to, such as the World Trade Organisation and The European Free Trade Association. However, it would be ill judged to assume that the UK would be able to dictate terms with the EU simply because it is running a trade deficit. Primarily, the EU buys half of Britain's exports whereas the UK accounts for little over 10 per cent of exports from the rest of the EU, so the UK would be in a weak position to negotiate the best terms by which to continue. Furthermore, it could be argued that the UK's access to many non-EU markets is thanks to its EU membership. On its own, the UK only accounts for 4% of global. Therefore, even trade that is not within the EU is at risk and the UK faces a potential significant reduction in trade that will likely cause a reduction in economic growth unless there is sharp growth in the domestic market. Also, although gaining membership to other bodies might be of some help, joining the World Trade Orginisation would be a purely cosmetic move, as it has 161 member states meaning that the UK would not have that much clout, whilst EFTA is essentially governed by EU regulation as all the companies that operating within the EU must still operate under EU guidelines.

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?

First, by leaving European Union, Britain’s trading with other EU countries will be negatively affected. Being a member of the EU helped Britain in the reduction of trade costs with European countries. Members of European Union agreed on having no tariff barriers within them, which resulted in the creation of a Single Market inside Europe. The Single Market allows the member countries to trade in services and goods for free and without tariffs, which can positively benefit the countries. As a result of Brexit, Britain would no longer be in the EU’s Single Market, but would have to pay taxes on their exports to other European countries and the exports would face additional costs. As a consequence of rise in the costs of trade with European countries, the British export businesses would likely become less competitive in the EU

“Whatever happens, Britain will surely require vast new numbers of bureaucrats, people to work on the new arrangements and people to enforce them. It will almost certainly turn out that Britain saved money by being part of Europe, because economies of scale made regulation much cheaper. It will almost certainly turn out that Britain was more powerful — with more sovereignty — when it was part of a large organization with international clout. Many of the other parties to those 759 deals will seek to take advantage of an isolated country with far fewer allies. British consumers, workers and entrepreneurs will pay the

It is time for this nonsense to end. It was wrong of the Government to offer the public a binary choice on the EU without being willing – in the event that people voted Leave – to explain how this can be made to work in the interests of the UK and Europe. We cannot wait until mid-September, and a new PM. We need a clear statement, now, of some basic truths:

One of the most visible benefit of the membership in the EU is the absence of trade tariffs between its members. However non-European markets are becoming more important for British producers because of the stagnation of the Eurozone economy and economic growth of the other region especially Asian one. Main claim against membership in the EU is that Britain sells much more goods to the EU than buys. Still this is barely a good reason to leave the Union. Mainly the EU’s trade surplus is accounted by only two counties: Germany and Netherlands, so the UK will not be able to dictate its terms after exit (Sprinford, Tilford and Whyte, 2014). In addition open market with the EU counties boosts the UK’s economy providing more labour and capital for producers. If Britain withdrew from full membership some options may take place in trading relations. Researchers mostly agree that British exit will directly cut the UK’s income from trade in the case of any not free trade agreements. However, the new free trade agreement seems likely to take place.

There are several ways the United Kingdom (UK) could exit the European Union (EU). Differences between a Soft and a Hard Brexit are considerable and each prospect deserves thorough investigation in order to understand how it will affect British businesses. The evolution of the EU allowed years of institutional and political transformation through the creation of the European Single Market which benefited British businesses (Medrano, 2003). However, the UK has always been reluctant to European obligations and stood out rapidly from the rest of the members by keeping their own currency. Following the Article 50, outlining the right to quit the EU, the UK citizens decided to leave in June 2016. This result caused important concerns and uncertainty especially for British businesses. In 2017 negotiations between the UK and the EU will start, however the way it will happen is still very ambiguous. British firms will be able to lobby for their favourable outcome, as they are in a position of power and could possibly influence the government in their negotiations. As firms have a strong impact on decision-makers, it is important to clarify for which outcome they should opt to protect in the best way their stakeholders during and after the transition of UK.

Brexit is a term commonly known as Britain exiting from European Union membership. The historic referendum on the UK and EU membership held on June 23, 2016. Although majority of Londoner wanted to stay with EU, 52 percent voters voted to support the leave campaign to leave European Union. Since World War two the world saw a rising trend of economic development and globalization in Europe. Brexit has ended this trend. Since United

We have set one of our research objetives as “define the different possible international trade agreements outcomes of the Brexit process”. We feel one of the first steps we will need to take is establishing the possible scenarios that will result from the Brexit, that is, what is the position the UK will be in regarding trade agreements. This is important, since depending on what conditions the UK manages to negotiate, the import and export activity will be affected in different ways (an unfavourable outcome would be, for example, the establishment of tariffs, which would adversely affect the trade flows).

The European Union (EU) was established in order to prevent the horrors of modern warfare, experienced by most of Europe during the World Wars of the 20th century, from ever ensuing again, by aiming to create an environment of trust with the countries of Europe cooperating in areas such as commerce, research and trade (Adams, 2001). The EU has evolved into an economic, trade, political and monetary alliance between twenty-eight European Member States. While not all Member States are in monetary union (i.e. share the currency of the euro), those that are form the ‘Euro-zone’ (Dinan, 2006). The EU can pass a number of types of legislation, with a regulation, act, or law, being the most powerful. Its ‘tricameral’ (European Union, 2007)