Brexit Metaphor No 98.
Brexiteers think international trade is an all-terrain SUV: you can drive it anywhere where there are roads and even in many places without roads.
However, international trade is more like a train engine: it needs tracks to move anywhere at all. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has laid tracks or connnected railway networks here and there in the last two decades. Yet, global trade is full of gaps between track connections, differences in track gauge from country to country and broken down train engines.
Some Brexiteers are suggesting that it will all be fine if Britain ends up with Hard Brexit, in which case it would simply trade with the rest of the world on WTO terms. I wonder if they have ever tried driving an SUV on railway tracks, dodging oncoming railway traffic.
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| Railway tracks (Source: Wikipedia) |
Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a series of original #BrexitMetaphors published daily. A total of 98 have been posted so far and another 63 Brexit Metaphors will be published every day until the planned Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
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If you saw an SUV on the railway tracks, wouldn't you think it is a suicide attempt?
ReplyDeleteOr would you easily recognise Britain's desperate attempts to start trading on WTO terms.