Theresa May

I see that the list of things which Australia could export to us is largely what I would call 'luxury' goods whereas the UK would be sending far more important goods to them. I was intrigued that food did not figure on the list so did a bit of 'googling'. Seems we import over 40% of our food and the majority of that comes from the EU - not huge transport costs either way as we do export about half the quantity back to them.
This is a crucial area of goods and would be in our interests to keep having no import charges. Where would we import this food from - if deals did not go well with the EU - and get no import tax?
I read a couple of articles but this one gave the best information although I have no idea if this is a good reliable source - one of you probably does though.
qz.com/716156/the-british-import-a-quarter-of-their-food-from-the-eu-and-thats-a-problem/

Anyone who lives here in the South east will see the enormous amount of freight that crosses the channel every day , most of it foodstuffs. Yes, we import an incredible amount of food from the Eu, many of us can remember the bland diet in the UK years ago- mince, lard, potatoes etc, nothing wrong with that per se, but our eating habits have changed so much in the past few decades. I can remember my dad saying he hated "foreign food" , but enjoying spaghetti, pizza and chicken tikka! It's hard to imagine having to go back to a 1950s diet, I'm sure we wouldn't, it's just going to cost more!

Do you have a link to current UK/Australia trade, Welshwife? My understanding is that we do very little trade with Australia, which is now part of an Asian bloc with Japan, Korea, Cina, etc.

The UK's biggest tangible (ie not service) exports by value are:sents in terms of overall exports from United Kingdom.

Machines, engines, pumps: US$63.9 billion (13.9% of total exports)
Gems, precious metals: $53 billion (11.5%)
Vehicles: $50.7 billion (11%)
Pharmaceuticals: $36 billion (7.8%)
Oil: $33.2 billion (7.2%)
Electronic equipment: $29 billion (6.3%)
Aircraft, spacecraft: $18.9 billion (4.1%)
Medical, technical equipment: $18.4 billion (4%)
Organic chemicals: $14 billion (3%)
Plastics: $11.8 billion (2.6%)
(1915 figures)

Australia buys most of its machines, engines, vehicles and aircraft, etc from its Asian trading partners. It doesn't make sense to ship heavy goods halfway round the world, so I was wondering what Australia buys from the UK and/or is likely to in the future.

Ooops! I meant 2015 figures. Doh!

many of us can remember the bland diet in the UK years ago- mince, lard, potatoes etc, nothing wrong with that per se, but our eating habits have changed so much in the past few decades. I can remember my dad saying he hated "foreign food" , but enjoying spaghetti, pizza and chicken tikka

I don't remember our diet consisting of mince, lard and potatoes. Spag bol is made of mince and chicken tikka comes from the Indian sub-continent. Or Glasgow apparently.
Pizza isn't food according to DH, it's just a snack to fill a gap until dinner.
(although he will eat a proper pizza made from scratch by an Italian/Australian friend!).

although I do remember that olive oil was just something to put down your ears not on your salad!

That's interesting, susied.
I seem to recall that lots of UK farmers moved to the EU, Fance and Spain in particular, so they can supply veg to the UK market all year round.
I wonder what they will do?

I remember food from my childhood as being bland and, with hindsight, not very nice, especially school dinners. How anybody ever managed to make fat in meat green is beyond me!

I remember my mother thinking yoghurt and peppers were 'foreign'.

It was a very simple diet with very limited choice compared to today in the 50s and 60s. Supermarkets had yet to dominate our shopping. The only pasta that ordinary people consumed was in the form of Heinz tinned spaghetti and macaroni cheese. Though I doubt it my DH ever had anything as exotic as macaroni cheese in the midlands in the 60s. Mind you, cheese and potato pie was rather lovely...
And yes Olive oil was from the pharmacist.
We'd still have to import fresh food from the continent but it might be more expensive Welshwife The only other sources of fruit and veg that I can think of are Israel and N Africa - with a small amount coming from Kenya and S Africa. Mostly an airfreight distance.

We'll be getting a lot more apples from Australia, though!

fullfact.org/europe/do-half-uks-exports-go-europe/

Daphne, 80% of our exports are services.
That could be a problem.

DD I was simply referring to the goods mentioned in the previous posts/ reports which were on the thread. That is why I linked it to Australia trading with us. If member wonderful tinned fruit and jam when we traded with them before - ISL brand - it was always the most delicious apricot jam you ever tasted Nd their tinned peaches and apricots were wonderful and also huge! I would have been delighted to see that sort of thing on the list of goods.

The ports the other side of the Channel are always full of lorries with all sorts in them - plenty of refrigerated food ones to trailers full of new cars.

Yes, I know and I don't know enough about what's likely to happen with services. It depends very much whether British banks reach some 'passporting' deal with the EU.

If they don't, and financial services start going to EU countries, the UK needs to find new markets. I don't know which centres Australians use for their financial services.

From what I understand, this is why people are concerned that the UK will attempt to become like Singapore or Hong Kong. The reality is that we don't have many tangible resources or make many manufactured goods which other countries want to buy. The world has moved on from the post-war era, when the UK was still a leading manufacturing country, having bought cheaply from the former colonies.

I don't really 'get' what kind of vision Brexiteers have for UK trade. We already have a large trade deficit, which is the cause of some of our problems, and I'm at a loss to know where new markets are going to be found (unless there really is life on Mars ).

Are they getting any fewer yet?
I noticed there was a comment last month about the price of bacon butties having to go up and blaming it on Brexit, but it was because the exchange rate had fallen, and the cost had actually gone down in shops.

Sorry, that was to Welshwife, about the number of lorries.

I don't remember ISL jam. I didn't see any list of goods - I'd better scroll back a bit further.

I don't think either the UK or Australia is going to get rich on importing/exporting jam.

Can you imagine how much anything would cost from Mars?
I can't imagine it would be tariff free trade.
That's in the same part of my brain as trying to work out Brexit.

www.wemove.eu/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=11679&qid=11868364

10,000 children, some as young as six, missing in the EU.

DJ. regarding shipping heavy goods around the World. A couple of years ago I bought a new lath which weighs about 1/2 tonne. Part of it was made in Taiwan, it was then shipped to New Zealand for assembly and then to the UK. Due to the £/Euro exchange rate at the time it was still cheaper than it's German competitor. When I later discussed this with someone involved in shipping they told me that with container shipping, cost were extremely low now. Seems crazy to ship large items around, but it now appears economic.
For me, the sad part is that we no longer have a machine tool industry in this country, primarily due to complacency and under investment.

That was presumably a specialist item. I don't believe it would be the same with mass-produced cars or other bulk items. The reason that the UK has a regenerated automotive industry is because parts can be made in other EU countries and shipped very quickly to assembly plants without the hassle of import/export bureaucracy. Finished cars can then be shipped very quickly from the purpose-built port.

That's what Nissan says, daphne.
If there are tariffs when we leave the EU, it will probably be cheaper and easier, and quicker, for them to move the factory to the EU.
They are not a charity. They are a business which has to make profit for their shareholders. They also have workers from mainland Europe working in Sunderland.
They may not want to stay.

My grandson read today about the wall in Calais.
"Does Theresa May want to copy Donald Trump?"
He asked if the French were going to pay for it, so I told him it would be us. It works out at £3 per head of population.

So he said if we have that amount to spend, why can't we spend it on bringing children who have no family to the UK.

Your grandson has hit the nail on the head. Be a laugh if we spent all that money building a big wall in Calais and then the French cancel the arrangement that means the UK border is in Calais won't it. This agreement is nothing to do with EU?Brexit. Because the wall won't make the problem go away. There will still be people who are desperate to get to the UK because their relatives are here or they speak great English and no French.

£3 per head of population?
I thought the cost was going to be £2 million
If there are about 35 million tax payers that's about ? each - any maths teachers on here?
Less still per head of population (64 million)

before anyone castigates me, I am not saying whether I think it is right or wrong, just by the maths.