When it was announced that TaTa ( Indian ) Steel, was going to close the Steel works at Port Talbot and possibly sell off ALL its Steel interests in the UK; putting ( potentially ) 15000 people out of work..........I HAD A VISION !!
Stop the overseas aid budget to INDIA and plough the money into the Steel Industry, I'd make them pay.......one way or another.
China's meteoric rise, to compete for top spot as the World's leading economy, was accompanied by an equally meteoric building programme. Among other things, this included steel plants; being built at the rate of one every couple of months or so. This made China self sufficient in Steel and CHEAP Steel ( due to extremely low production costs, compared to other Countries ) with Steel workers earning £50 to £100 per week. Hardly a level playing field now is it !! , however; had that steel remained in China, it would only have excluded that one market as an outlet for other Steel producers........annoying as it would have been, others would have survived. BUT, as China's economy has slowed dramatically ( including its building programmes ) it finds itself well overstocked with its own cheap steel........which it has now dumped onto the Worlds markets.
As we all know that the UK is NEVER going to be able to compete, with certain other Countries, when it comes to production costs; our main strengths lie in industries that are more advanced than other countries.......and therefore gives us the edge. One has to ask, however, that if our trade hinges so strongly on remaining in the EU.........How is all this cheap CHINESE Steel finding its way in. When did China join the EU ?? did I blink and miss something..........Add to that the fact that we didn't need the EU to negotiate THAT trade deal, did we, I'm sure we could have done that ALL BY OURSELVES.
Another observation - the issue about the import of cheap lower grade steel from China could have been blocked within the EU, but hey - guess which nation vetoed the proposal?
Rememer the days when cars had a shelf life of about years when they rusted to pieces around you.
There's a lot more to this going on behind the scenes than is apparent and I wouldn't trust this government as far as I could chuck an egg at them, and my throwing skills are pretty lousy these days.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exporting-to-china/exporting-to-china
guess the goverment is looking at the bigger picture, also fully agree with Creeky for once
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