Does the EU really want to risk the loss of £430 million per working day?

EU27 earns £433 million per working day in goods alone.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 02 June 2020, the fourth round of the UK-EU trade talks start. After harsh words were exchanged at the end of the last round of negotiations, Michel Barnier once again went on the attack against the UK just before the weekend.

Below I give a flavour of Monsieur Barnier’s remarks, but first I provide a summary of the latest trade figures from the EU itself. These are official figures — as with everything I research and publish — and come from the EU’s own official statistics agency. These are for last year, 2019.

The EU27’s very lucrative goods trade with the United Kingdom

How much do the EU27 countries make each working day
from selling and buying goods with “Treasure Island” (the UK)?

EU27 sells the UK £1103 million per working day

EU27 buys from the UK £ 671 million per working day

Having the UK as part of the Single Market and Customs Union in 2019,
the EU27 made £432 million pounds every working day

Goods trade figures 2019 in Euros:-

EU27 sold to UK : € 318,214,633,480

EU27 bought from UK : € 193,674,018,971

EU27 earned a surplus (“profit”) of € 124,540,614,509

Statistical note: I have converted Euros to Pounds at €1 = £1.14 which was the average exchange rate last year. There were 253 working days in the United Kingdom in 2019.

Tomorrow the British Bulldog will once again face the French Poodle.

Tomorrow the fourth round of the UK-EU trade talks start. Originally scheduled to begin yesterday, a glance at the agenda shows that there may no longer be enough to talk about, to fill four days. In fact, the calendar looks embarrassingly bare.

Readers may note that the real purpose of these trade talks — to do a deal on trade in goods and services — has been allocated just 12.5 hours by the EU.

Barney Rubble the French caveman poodle now seems to be spending more time on damage limitation than on negotiation

In a long interview with Deutschlandfunk (German state radio) on Friday, Monsieur Barnier pumped out his now-familiar messages — this time direct to the German people.

“The British have not understood or do not want to understand that Brexit has consequences for them.” (Translation Zee British must be punished.”)

“We won’t make any progress if the British continue to peck raisins.” (Translation.: “Don’t cherry-pick.”)

And as he was addressing a German audience he also used a German expression: “You cannot dance at two weddings at the same time.”

Last year the EU27 made over £430 million pounds per working day from the UK goods trade

I make no apologies for repeating this. It is a sad fact that the true nature of the UK’s goods trade with the EU has been hidden from the British public for years

Unfortunately, the BBC remains uninterested. In my view, this should be a continuing question which must be asked of the BBC by MPs who are responsible for scrutinising it. For years we have seen the BBC not even touching on subjects like this. Its no wonder people have no idea of what is going on

With the EU27’s goods exports to the UK totalling £279 billion in 2019, and the EU’s trade surplus running at £109 billion, one would have thought the EU27’s leaders really might not want to put that trade at risk.

Instead, we have the prissy, French, old school ‘dirigiste’ Michel Barnier, still insisting that we must be punished — no matter the punishment he will inflict on the citizens of the EU who rely on trade with the United Kingdom for their jobs and livelihoods.

Sources: EU’s official statistics agency Eurostat | Deutschlandfunk

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