Bombardier: An Object Lesson?

September 27, 2017 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Without going into the technicalities of why the US authorities have issued such a punitive tariff against the Canadian plane maker and its Belfast factory, it is important to make a general point about trading with the United States.

In spite of the Special Relationship with America and notwithstanding the enormous inter-connection between UK and US businesses and investors and the fact that we are both the largest foreign investors and employers in each other’s countries, we have never had a comprehensive trade deal together. The reason is that regulations, business practices and investment controls are very different in each country to the point where the gaps are unbridgeable. It has thus been the practice for both countries to expand the reach of their businesses by setting up subsidiaries in each other’s homeland, subject to compliance of all local rules.

When you compare the venomous attempt to bring a competitor of Boeing to its knees, with the sunny prospect of a tariff free trade deal with America to  replace some of the losses of Brexit, you see just how unrealistic an aspiration that is. If free trade were practical between the UK and US, we would have organised it a century ago.