Hold your nerve May and Australia will be OPEN for free trade, says ALEXANDER DOWNER
When the British people voted to leave the EU we Australians thought it was a pretty simple proposition.
By ALEXANDER DOWNER
00:00, Sun, Jan 20, 2019 | UPDATED: 01:24, Sun, Jan 20, 2019
High Commissioner for Australia Alexander Downer (Image: Hannah McKay-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
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.
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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. That’s 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.
Brexit has pluses and minuses.
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.
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I’m depressed. Your parliament isn’t going to allow it. The British people voted to leave the EU but two thirds of the parliament didn’t agree with the people’s decision.
Dozens of clever and cunning ploys are being used to defy the will of the people. Let’s face it.
At best the parliament will vote to leave the political structures of the EU but remain in its economic structures. At worst, they will organise another referendum but this time give EU citizens living in the UK the vote and allow children between 16 and 18 to vote even though they can’t vote in British elections. The plan? To get Brexit cancelled.
Well, you can cancel Brexit if you like. But if you do, you’ll keep your best mates in the world - the Aussies - out in the cold where you’ve kicked us for the past 40 years.