When the UK finally got out fully from the EU, four years after the decision to leave , we removed tariffs from one fifth of the product lines where we had to impose tariffs under EU rules. This was a win for UK businesses and consumers. We took tariffs off intermediates needed by UK producers and off consumer items we do not make ourselves. Then we signed up to tariff free trade with the Trans Pacific Partnership, wins to come soon as it comes into force.
It should remind us the so called single market is a protectionist customs union, charging taxes on 73% of the product lines it imports. It has no free trade deal with the big TPP. The EU often charges higher tariffs than trade partners. Cars for example are charged 10% coming into EU and only 2.5% into the USA. No wonder President Trump wants to level up. The UK should have another round of tariff reduction, assessing where we could take our tariffs down to US levels from the higher EU levels we are still imposing in some cases.
Our total trade is up 8.6% 2016 to 2023 in volume and much more in money. Our service trade is up 30% in real terms. Our total exports to the EU are up 6.2% in real terms. [figures taken from recent published Commons Library brief using ONS numbers]
Such a pity so many condemn Brexit from ignorance of these successes.
February 12, 2025
Remoan propaganda often falsely paints an opposite picture, lamenting collapsing trade.
We cannot expect anyone in this government to trumpet our trade triumphs, just as no-one did in the last.
February 12, 2025
Indeed not and these achieved despite an abject failure to fully use the new freedoms and absurdly high net zero energy costs, vast OTT red tape, huge over taxing and the harms done by lockdowns and the net harm vaccines.
Nor can we expect any truth about the vaccine and lockdown caused excess deaths from Labour or the Tories.
See
Excess deaths in young adults
Dr. John Campbell
242K views 1 day ago
Mortality Trends Among Early Adults in the United States, 1999-2023. In 2021 almost three times higher than 2019 in USA ages 25+ to under 50.
Horrendous! How are the life insurance companies looking! Good for government and private pension providers bad for like expectancy. Car accidents up and murders too.
I assume the UK government will put this mainly down to Long Covid and NHS shutdowns. Let us hope in the USA with Trump & Kennedy we will/might get some honesty.
February 12, 2025
I for one do not condemn Brexit in its basic aims only the fact that it was only barely done. I condemn the government at the time, the civil service and other members of the establishment for working to frustrate a democratic decision. Harmer Starmer is still at it.
Your expressed desire to trade with them on WTO rules would have left us with a nett duty gain on resultant duties charged, due to the then, and current inbalance of trade in the EUs favour.
The neighbourly freedom of movement for Irish citizens has turnd into a back door point of illegal entry for economic migrants. The EUs play on introducing a border at the threat of negating the Good Friday Agreement was a shabby one, threatening peoples lives for EU ends. Our remainer negotiators fell for it and settled for a quasi border of regulation instead. Dividing the United Kingdom.
Energy umbelicals with the EU only serve to feed the lack of our own available energy policy. A remainer ploy using the great satan CO2 as a fanciful excuse. While at the same time destroying our own industrial base.
We could easily be an off european shore Singapore, but this would require a great political reset , something towards which the electorate are moving. Margaret Thatcher showed the way, only to be drowned out by the wet political establishment we have suffered since. Our only hope is that Nigel and Reform appreciate the extent of the reset required. Our current farce of a government only serves to emphasise the need.
February 12, 2025
50 years since Thatcher replaces Heath as party leader true she was drowned out the wet lefty party and the fool John Major who buried the party rather as Cameron-Sunak have down now.
Also 100 days of largely invisible Kemi.
If I and many others are ever to vote Tory again (as I did for Thatcher in 1979+) Kemi I will need to trust your parties promises and for them to promise to ditch net zero, scrap IHT for all, cut the size of the state, ditch the ECHR, cut taxes. No sign of these promises and how on earth would the party every regain my trust after 14 years of gross betrayal after three+ elections.
Kemi thinks she will get this back in two years as if by magic. See her Telegraph podcast interview, No chance dear.
Next PM odds favourite Farage second Kemi third WesStreeting – the later two will be lucky to even hold their seats.
February 12, 2025
I will never vote Tory again. They are finished. We need to upgrade Reform – the closer they get to power the more important that is.
Do you still want PR now that Reform are 13 points from a landslide?
February 12, 2025
I wish we could claim the same as your opening line.
Sadly we needed to vote Tory in our local election in a forlorn hope of unseating another LibDem.
How in our area, claimed to be educated, well paid and intelligent, voters at 30% turnout have elected them ripping up safe roundabouts for £5.5m to leave us with confusing and dangerous leaf painted tarmac – I’ll never know.
February 12, 2025
@Lifelogic – promises? That’s all we have had this century, if we keep making the same mistakes of believing what is the identical sameish continuity teams we mustn’t be surprised if we keep getting the same results. Can the Country and the people keep paying for the same mistakes?
February 12, 2025
Plus a David Starkey “reformation” certainly of almost everything done by the disasters of Blair and Brown.
February 12, 2025
Spot on Agricola. 2TK is doing his upmost to realign us with the EU. He obviously doesn’t want free trade with the USA because ideology is paramount.
I too hope Nigel promised to repeal any skullduggery of this government and we leave properly
February 12, 2025
@agricola +1 Our MPs and Parliament are still hanging on. The seem to feel if they trash the UK and its economy they can slide us back into the EU as our salvation. Parliament doesn’t believe in a UK or its People, and we voted them in. We all should know by now if you keep making the same mistake you get the same failure as the result
February 12, 2025
Brexit is a GREAT idea but requires LEADERSHIP to implement and make successful.
You can’t blame civil servants. Civil servants aren’t leaders.
It’s like a general blaming his foot soldiers.
A general goes to war properly prepared.
Only then does he enjoy victory.
Same for the military as for business and politics.
February 13, 2025
If a General (Leader) has an Army he cannot sack, which has a large contingent of Quislings who do not support his objectives, it is likely to fail.
And in the case of Brexit, even the General didn’t support the objectives he had been given.
February 12, 2025
Here is the letter that I have sent to our local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, this week, setting out to expose the Rejoiner nonsense supported by our new Liberal Democrat MP as the nonsense that it is:
“When we joined the EEC or ‘Common Market’ in 1973 we became part of its customs union, which meant we removed tariffs and quotas on goods from the other members and applied the Common External Tariff to imports from non-members. From then on we no longer had our own independent trade policy, Brussels speaking for us on trade matters.
But routine checks and controls on goods crossing the borders between EEC members continued until the advent of the Single Market two decades later. So the Liberal Democrats who now airily propose some kind of customs union with the EU to reduce friction at the borders and “turbocharge growth” have got it badly wrong, and on multiple counts.
Firstly, we already have a zero-tariff zero-quota trade deal with the EU, and as that itself is of little value to our economy – 0.75 percent of our GDP, according to the EU Commission – it is irrational to suppose that a customs union could provide any significant addition.
Secondly, we know that the main source of excessive paperwork is EU Single Market rules. This is why M&S is complaining about the difficulty of moving foodstuffs from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, which has been left behind under EU Single Market rules.
And thirdly, to get a vanishingly small economic benefit while still failing to remove most of the tiresome friction at the borders unnecessarily created by the EU – these are ‘EU rules’, not ‘Brexit rules’ – we would shackle ourselves to the economically moribund EU.
Quite an achievement to get something so comprehensively wrong, I would suggest.”
February 12, 2025
Perhaps a party will take on your advice, Denis, and promise to get us out of this, especially if other trade lines are open now to replace goods if we apply the same rules to the EU that they use to the UK.
February 12, 2025
I believe that when we were in the EU that the EU took 80% of any duties charged on imports into the EU from “third countries”. Now the UK takes 100% of any tariffs. There was also talk about the EU taking the VAT charge on imports, not sure if that’s correct though.
February 12, 2025
As I recall that money made up part of our EU budget contribution.
February 12, 2025
@ Denis Cooper – ‘why M&S is complaining’ the proof if needed the UK is still under control of the unaccountable unresponsible bureaucrats in a foreign land- confirming we have lazy MPs in a freeloading Parliament
February 12, 2025
Rather a sick sight Susan Ann Gray, Baroness Gray of Tottenham, CBE signing on for her tax free daily Lords allowance. For, one assumes, political services rendered to Starmer!
February 12, 2025
Plenty of people are moving into the Lords that anger both sides of the Country. Some appointments are purely unmerited. What did Charlotte Owen do to deserve a place in the Lords when Sir John, who has dedicated a lifetime of service to this Country, isn’t? That shows up Boris and his choices.
Carmen Smith, Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, was appointed at the age of 27 in 2024, what had she done to deserve this? What unique talent will she bring?
Soon, the whole lot will anger people too much, and the backlash will be nasty, I don’t think politicians realise how disgusted people are right now.
February 12, 2025
Keeping even 25% of the current ‘friends of friends’ body would still be too many.
February 12, 2025
@Lifelogic – the House of Lords a blot on the country and an insult to its people
February 12, 2025
The blob and it’s acolytes have sought to frustrate and undermine Brexit at every turn. That includes the BBC in its role as it’s chief propaganda arm.
It was interesting to see that the UK did not sign up to the Paris declaration on AI yesterday. JD Vance delivered an extremely robust declaration of the USA’s intent to be the dominant force in AI. It did not sign the declaration.
February 12, 2025
@David Andrews – No democratic Nation should sign any so-called declaration. Thier own Parliaments choose the direction that is needed. If that is not the case disband all Parliaments and get rid of MPs
February 12, 2025
Excuses, excuses.
Real leadership (and heroism) is about grabbing the situation by the scruff of the neck and taking control – not blaming others.
It is weakness whether in politics or the military or business or human relationships to blame others.
Real men LEAD (and take responsibility for their failures).
And great leadership is connected to the idea of HEROISM.
It’s frustrating. We’re all flawed and have failures. But if we want to experience real successes in life, we have to persevere. It’s a heroic struggle – granted! That’s why people should read the myths of the Ancient Greek heroes, to remind us that our life is a heroic struggle (but can we enjoy great successes in it like Jason retrieving the Golden Fleece! A successful Brexit is like the Golden Fleece. But we have to fight for it through proper leadership. Jason would ultimately have blamed himself, not the oarsmen, if the Argo hadn’t succeeded in its mission to reach the Golden Fleece).
And we can still make a success of Brexit. But it requires real leadership and an element of heroism to achieve.
February 12, 2025
Most people simply don’t hear the truth about so many things, including Brexit. The mainstream media have had astonishing success in hiding so much from the public, despite the rise in alternative media.
That is changing and the establishment is no longer complacent. Trump’s election has really riled them (echoes of the Brexit vote upset there). They are fighting back with online and offline censorship law and regulation. Despite this I think the public will wake up, and recognise they’ve been hoodwinked, misled and lied to for a long time. At that point, compared to a collapsing EU, Brexit may once again be more appreciated. This blog and others are having a positive effect.
February 12, 2025
Have you read some DOGE revelations about money going to media companies and from whom? They are eye watering.
February 12, 2025
The BBCs anti-Brexit propganda largely ignores these facts.
February 12, 2025
@Kenneth +1
February 12, 2025
An anti-brexit, big state, regulate to death, tax to death, net zero pushing, climate alarmist propaganda outfit – wrong on everything.
February 12, 2025
Consumers decide what they buy. Tariffs may add to the price.
If what consumers want is desirable enough, they’ll pay the price.
Brexit enables more freedom to choose what we want.
February 12, 2025
What’s the point of Brexit when we keep reading headlines like this
Palestinian refugees given right to come to Britain under Ukraine settlement scheme – as Home Office warns the move could open ‘floodgates’
So why isn’t the Home Office doing something about it then, we should leave the ECHR
This country is a bloody sink hole if I was 40 years younger I’d leave this sinking ship in a heartbeat
February 12, 2025
@Mick +1
Human rights law means that yours and the majorities human rights are ignored and trashed on the back of some unelected unaccountable clowns personal agenda
February 12, 2025
President Trump’s detractors never compare his protectionism to that of the EU.
As ever EU good, all others bad, there is no objectivity.
February 12, 2025
Why don’t the UK media point out the EU tariffs and protectionism to the USA and the tricks they used to hurt our trade between the mainland and Northern Ireland? Sunak did that!
February 12, 2025
Starmer types will always over regulate and over protect trade in their small minded world. He can hardly complain when the elephant in his room decides to do likewise. Trump will use this as a negotiating tool, like realistic threats to use force elsewhere, to forge a transition to even sided agreements.
The Starmers of this world, along with his EU buddies, will eventually fall into line.
February 12, 2025
@Sir Joe Soap +1
February 12, 2025
If you ask people what effect Brexit had on our export trade to the EU many will say it reduced or collapsed and some thinking themselves better informed will say it reduced by £27bn. I’ve seen both Remainers and Leavers say this, the latter excuse it by mentioning Covid. Why, when the facts show the EXACT OPPOSITE ? Well because no-one in the previous government highlighted this information, the majority of them Remainers of course who predicted a trade collapse so were probably unwilling to admit they were wrong. It was a big communications failure. If you want to get a message out that doesn’t conform with the establishment view you need to relentlessly hammer away at it day after day – Rupert Lowe knows this, most other MPs of all parties don’t.
Reply I am an independent commentator who hammers away every day
February 12, 2025
Does it concern you, John, that you are in a minority of Conservative voices? I can’t think of more than five who hammer away as you do.
February 12, 2025
@Roy Grainger – asked and answered “the majority of them Remainers” and still are as proven by their action to do everything in their power to remain so. The message of anything else is not permitted, the actions needed are not permitted. The UK Electorate has been disenfranchised.
We have to remember that us the electorate causing the country to keep choosing those that failed will just keep getting more failures in the fold
February 12, 2025
Perhaps a regular even daily video version of JR’s views and prescriptions, on e.g. Rumble, would have greater reach and impact and bring the battle to the enemy.
Reply Happy for anyone to circulate these blogs in other ways. If someone wants to read them on a video and put them out then pl go ahead with a credit to this site.
February 12, 2025
The claimed £27 billion is for goods, and I accept that could be right:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2025/01/06/nationalisation-is-bad-for-employees-customers-and-taxpayers/#comment-1492721
but exports of services have risen to compensate for that and more.
February 12, 2025
Actually JR has been hammering away day after day for decades. Personally I have no idea how he finds the stamina and patience.
February 12, 2025
@Lynn Atkinson – agreed the last Conservative we will ever see
February 12, 2025
This website has pushed me further to the right than any other (on Brexit, tax, immigration and fracking).
I’m grateful for that (but still not convinced by the anti-Net-Zeroists on this site! Yes, big problems with Net Zero. For sure (I agree – and we must protect oil, gas and nuclear). But also an opportunity to make trillions of pounds out of through green high tech and related high tech whilst Net Zero isn’t going to go away no matter how much people shout about it. So then left with the choice of how to make money out of it – or not).
February 12, 2025
“We removed tariffs from one-fifth of the product lines where we had to impose tariffs under EU rules.” I don’t think many people know you did this as soon as possible.
I don’t believe many people think you achieved much following Brexit. A leaver has to rely on individuals on X to share good news and wins for the UK as the Conservative communications are so poor. Sadly, one of the Good News sharers died last year. People insist on social media that there are only negatives; when they’re shown dozens of positives, they deny it without any evidence. Farage doesn’t help saying “Brexit didn’t happen”; he works against himself and is entirely unaware (although I guess it suits him to say the Tories didn’t deliver, so he would).
February 12, 2025
We could make quite a long list of reasons why we are better off out of the EU, but those that believe in the big state and international rule would fight against it, mostly with innuendo, never actual verifiable facts.
A well known ex-TV presenter bemoans the fact that it takes considerably more time to drive into France than before Brexit – he refuses to look at the controls EU countries have put in place to create these traffic jams.
We hear today that our great friends in the EU, not showing any bias against UK citizens, starting with Spain are intending to impose a 100% tax on properties owned by British people. We have never needed friends like this but of course the likes of Starmer will simply ignore this massive insult to friendly relations and expect homeowners to just suck it up.
It seems, as when we were in the EU, that the onus is always on us to please the Europeans!
We really do need to get out of the shadow of the EU – it has certainly caused us more trouble than it brought benefits, and that is unlikely to change!
February 12, 2025
It is how they behave to anybody who is not in their “club”, which is 94.5% of the world’s population.
February 12, 2025
In fact the Spanish Government on 13//01/2025 proposed a 100% tax on properties held by non-EU people.
And what about if Spain has, like the UK has it, a problem with housing in areas where most people want to live?
February 13, 2025
It has nothing to do with available housing, and everything to do with socialism ripping off people because they can
February 13, 2025
I hope you realise your comment is content-free.
February 12, 2025
“When the UK finally got out fully from the EU” – When did that happen? we haven’t repealed EU Laws or Regulations and replaced them with ones that are applicable to the UK. We are tied to the EU by the retched Windsor Accord, where a foreign power dictates how and what we do.
The only vote I remember was to leave the EU. Logic to become a democratic sovereign Country, a lazy freeloading parliament has denied us our vote. It is as if Parliament doesn’t understand democracy, they don’t understand their position as our sole legislators, the only ones empowered, to make, amend and repeal our laws rules and regulation – after all that is the only thing we pay them to do. Our MP’s, our Parliament are so lazy and incompetent the seek the free-loading no need to think soft option of allowing foreign powers to dictate to them what they must do. That is not a parliament of a democratic sovereign nation.
Sir John, I love your optimism and the ability to gloss over reality by sighting the odd win as proof that something that should have happened many years ago is left suspended so our hateful parliament can return us at will slowly under the yoke of the unelected unaccountable – with no question asked
February 12, 2025
Its us the electors that are to blame, we must wake up and smell the coffee if we keep voting for those that failed us we will still get failures as MPs and a failed Parliament working for no one but themselves. Although, that said at the last GE the majority(the majority of the UK people) of the centre ground, the hard workers were disenfranchised, when all that was on offer as it is for the most part now different levels of left-wing socialism, some verging on Marxism.
650MPs in Parliament, at a rough guess 620 want to return under the EU’s unelected unaccountable yoke. The same 620 are full blown Socialist without a single management brain between them.
February 12, 2025
If the Teslas are made in Europe and sold in the UK what tariff is applied? Where are the Teslas we buy in the UK imported from?
I used to love our family Chrysler Voyager, one of the best cars we owned, and I know people love the Ford Mustang.
The most popular best-selling cars like the Ford Puma, even though it is an American company, are there no tariffs as long as the vehicles are finished in the UK or is a 10% tariff charged on them because they’re from an American owned company?
Reply No tariff on Eu made import to UK. Its value added in each country, not country of the owner of the company that counts for tariffs. If. 90% of the Tesla was imported into EU , 10% added then sold to UK there would be a tariff of 10%
February 12, 2025
Most of Tesla cars available in Europe come from the Gruenheide factory, Brandeburg, near Berlin.
The Ford Puma is made in Cologne, Germany and the Chrysler Voyager is likely from Windsor, Ont., Canada. And BTW Chrysler is now part of the Stellantis NV group.
February 12, 2025
I do not find that research paper on the Commons Library. Could you help me?
February 12, 2025
I believe this is the most recent, August 23 2024:
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7851/CBP-7851.pdf
“Statistics on UK trade with the EU”
February 12, 2025
Any hope of fully implementing Brexit disappeared when Two-tier Kier and his English hating rabble were elected.
February 12, 2025
According the HoC Library:
“The UK had a trade deficit with the EU of £99 billion in 2023 and a trade surplus of £77 billion with non-EU countries. The trade deficit with all countries increased to £11.0 billion in the three months to November 2024 compared to £7.3 billion in the three months to August”
The trade deficit of £100bn with the EU existed before Brexit and still continues. The real reason why our MPs wish to form closer ties with the EU is firstly that socialism depends upon people remaining poor and secondly because EU membership enables de-industrialisation to speed up as we import more from the EU, not least energy (14% as I write), in order to meet our international Net Zero commitments to reduce our CO2 emissions by 81% by 2025 and 100% by 2050.
February 12, 2025
I wonder how much it is in real terms. And our goods trade is down how much? And, of course, magically imports are no problem – we are not making it harder for EU exporters to sell here- but the EU is making it much harder for us to export to them. Typical. Why do we have anything to do with them.
Reply Volume is real terms
February 12, 2025
The reality is that we are now ruled by Marxists so the truth does not count.
Stella Creasy uses Paddington Bear as a legal precedent for continued *irregular* ‘migration’. You know what ? I find that more forgivable than what Priti Patel did.
February 12, 2025
The lack of knowledge about Brexit and the growth of our trade with the EU and the rest of the world is down to sloppy reporting from the BBC and MSM. They don’t want to know the truth or be confused by the facts.
Sadly too many of our MPs are equally ignorant, and happy to see us drift back into the EU.
It is the same with Net Zero, again with false propaganda from the BBC and MSM.
Labour will continue to make bad decisions and do precisely the wrong thing for the UK economy, until they bankrupt the country!
February 12, 2025
You are right Mr Redwood about ignorance, what I don’t understand is why the Conservative Party has never hammered home on regular basis about the Benefits of Brexit and what it has achieved. In many ways the P.R. machine for the Conservatives is in my view a failure. Thank you for all these stats, i use them often when commenting to try and educate those that don’t have a clue.
February 12, 2025
Brexit has failed because it failed on border control meaning it failed on everything. The Tories were kicked out of office because of this, not because of the economy.
The shockingly fast changes in most neighbourhoods caused the rout.
Our borders were flung open to scroungers and to the downright dangerous. Priti Patel recently bragged that this is what Tory voters were promised and that all these newcomers were “The brightest and the best.”
This is simply the very opposite of the truth. The newcomers seem to be slothful and bring with them their own obesity and mental health conditions. Many have gone straight onto welfare and MILLIONS have arrived since Brexit.
This is the exact opposite of what Brexit was about so that’s why it doesn’t really matter what has been said about trade.
February 12, 2025
What you’re at is navel gazing while the real story is happening on the world stage there are forces out there willing to upset the order we have known – masters of chaos – so do you still think a deal with the Americans is possible or even desirable
February 12, 2025
Given the ineptitude of this Labour Government, I doubt our trade figures are going to much improve over the next four years. They are already demonstrating they are unfit to govern us and I trust King Charles has this in mind when he entertains them at Windsor Castle.
If not, he could be seen as bordering on some political affiliation which is certainly not the way the Royals should walk.
February 12, 2025
So there we have it Trump has turned his back on Europe, he has other fish to fry he says.
So to help with his other interests like China he has done a grubby deal with Putin behind the Ukranian’s back but also behind the backs if his other NATO frields and now he’s like PM Chamberlain from 1938 waving that piece of paper with the signature and sayIng “peace in our time” – meanwhile the Germans and Soviets signed the non-aggression pact – all very cosy at the time – but it didn’t last very long
February 13, 2025
The US is capitulating to the geopolitical reality of a new,more powerful world order,accepting multipolarity and trying to save itself from the financial and military overstretch which threatens to consume it (for instance,the US is rolling over 10 year debt on which it was paying 2% at more than double that rate).See Elon Musk’s impromptu warnings in the Oval Office the other night.
February 13, 2025
Puh-leese.
Europe and particularly Britain are finished. Trump is right to do what he’s doing.
He’s defeated every one of his enemies so far and is no mug.
February 13, 2025
Proof of the pudding