1. An oft-repeated lie is no less a lie. I’m so tired of this inane “the majority of our trade is outside the EU” nonsense, I’m going to do a short thread about it. TLDR version: it’s bollocks. Feel free to share it.
2. The statistics quoted by people claiming that “the majority of UK trade is outside the EU” almost invariably make the mistake of confusing the EU countries as a market with the EU as a trading framework. Only by doing so, is such a claim sustainable.
3. In fact, the trade for which Brexit removes all basis, is not only trade with EU members, but all trade done with third parties through EU trade agreements - from Norway to South Korea. By exiting, the UK will simply no longer be a party to that entire legal framework.
4. That trade represents 57% of the UK’s exports and 66% of its imports (going by 2016 ONS figures). And that doesn’t even include preferential agreements in specific markets or special terms offered by or to the EU unilaterally, if which there are dozens.
5. If one included all trade facilitated by this complex European trade framework, all of it entirely dependent on our membership, we are talking about over three quarters of all international trade. I cannot explain what is at stake more plainly. END
