What worries me about the referendum is that it will be decided by voters who will be swayed by misunderstandings and half truths.

Several time in the last few weeks I have been told that we can leave behind the EU regulations and just have a free trade agreement, like Norway. WRONG!

I wonder how many of those who will vote in the referendum have taken the time to find out the exact situation of Norway: rather deeply buried in the EU regulations; see(http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/norway/) where I find:

As a member state of the European Economic Area, Norway fully applies the whole acquis communautaire relevant to the four freedoms (free movement of goods, persons, services and capital), along with that pertinent to flanking policies (i.e. transport, competition, social policy, consumer protection, environment, statistics and company law).

As a result, the EEA agreement provides for a high degree of economic integration, common competition rules, rules for state aid and government procurement. 

Norway has had a referendum on joining the EU, and was persuaded by their Eurosceptics to vote against, but in order to continue to trade they have had to accept all those things which British Eurosceptics object to, most notably the free movement of people, and the social policy.

If the referendum leads to the exit from the EU, the UK may be offered a status similar to Norway, fully complying with all EU legislation but having no say in its formulation, but it may not.

Then we will be a third party country, and drilling even further into the EU regulations you can find the procedures for negotiating with the EU for the export of UK manufactures to the EU: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1992R2913:20070101:EN:PDF

Article 131.   Customs authorities may, in accordance with the conditions laid down by the provisions in force, carry out all the controls they deem necessary to ensure that customs rules and other legislation governing the entry, exit, transit, transfer and end-use of goods moved between the customs territory of the Community and third countries and the presence of goods that do not have Community status are correctly applied.

Norway exports few manufactured goods to the EU, but salmon, an important Norwegian export, has to pay a 12% tariff. The EU could apply a 12% tariff on, for instance, cars manufactured in the UK: Jaguar, Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and Honda. It is not surprising that Nissan have said they would review their UK investment should the referendum decide on leaving.

It worries me that voters will be deciding the outcome of the referendum with no in depth understanding of the impact of a NO vote.

 

David Walker

 

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