Andy Burnham's EU reset will trash 90% of UK goods exports by making
them even more expensive while benefitting almost zero. Anyone who cares
about British industry must stop this deal, says Catherine McBride.
For the many UK politicians and journalists who don’t know anything about UK trade, here are the highlights:
The UK is now predominantly a service exporter. 57% of UK exports are services, which are not affected by EU ‘red tape’.
UK goods exports have dropped from almost 70% of our total exports
in 1997 to just 43% in 2025. This trend began long before Brexit and is
tied to Net Zero mandates, high UK energy prices and EV mandates.
Machinery and transport goods, such as cars and aircraft parts, are
42% of all UK goods exports. This is by far the UK’s largest export
sector, although it is also falling. It was 50% of UK exports in 2000.
But if the UK joins the EU’s CBAM, companies in this sector will see
their imported material costs rise, making their exports even less
competitive.
Chemicals are the UK’s second-largest export sector. They account
for 19% of UK goods exports, but this share is shrinking due to UK and
EU energy costs and Net Zero regulations. These costs and regulations
will increase if the UK joins the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
Miscellaneous manufactures account for 11% of UK goods exports. This
is still the UK’s third-largest export sector, even though it includes
many goods the UK no longer makes because of our high carbon taxes,
which will increase if the UK signs up to the EU’s even higher ETS on
November 20th.
Fuels account for 9% of UK exports. This is still the UK’s fourth
largest goods export sector, even though the current and previous
governments have tried to destroy it with bans on new exploration and
ultra-high taxes.
Material manufactures account for 8% of UK goods exports. This
sector includes iron, steel, aluminium, ceramics and glass manufacturing
– industries that have gone, or are going out of business in the UK
because of high UK energy costs, which will rise if the UK joins the EU
ETS.
These five sectors make up almost 90% of UK goods exports. The other
five industry sectors are insignificant. But the Government and our
journalists think the UK is New Zealand and that the only goods we
export are food and live animals to the EU. We don’t! UK food and live
animal exports to the EU were just 1.3% of the UK’s total exports.
The Government is about to sacrifice all of the export industries listed above to slightly reduce the import
costs of a handful of supermarkets, at least two of which are privately
owned German companies. These savings will not be passed on to UK
shoppers because the Government has also increased wages again, and
supermarket energy costs will increase if we join the EU’s ETS.
UK exports of food and live animals will not increase because we are
paying farmers to not produce them; this has nothing to do with EU red
tape. Instead we are paying farmers to plant trees and wildflowers or
plaster their farmland with solar panels. (54% of UK electricity is
coming from gas today, 12% from solar and 3% from wind.)...<<<Read More>>>....
