LONDON, United Kingdom – With the announcement that British Steel is days away from collapse failing a major UK government bailout, media organizations are already trying to point the finger of blame at Brexit – which hasn’t even taken place – for the failings of the privatized firm.
Thousands of jobs in the steel sector and more across the corporation’s supply chain will be lost if the government doesn’t bail British Steel out. But should it?
The company is run in private, and for profit. When small and medium small profits fail, they don’t receive government bailouts.
The real blame lies with the European Union itself, as well as Chinese dumping, oversupply, and the sale of core British manufacturing sector companies in the name of neo-liberal economics and globalism.
This alone should have caused Theresa May to walk away from the negotiating table six months ago...
THE EUROPEAN UNION
The European Union (EU) – not Brexit – should take most of the blame for the demise of British Steel.
The bloc removed Britain from its EU Carbon Emissions scheme in 2018, before Brexit had occurred. This left British Steel scrambling to find €110m ($112m) to purchase carbon permits. This alone should have caused Theresa May to walk away from the negotiating table six months ago, in favor of a World Trade Organization Brexit which could have helped protect the UK from further trade aggression from the EU.
Instead, and knowingly, she chose to keep “negotiating” around her fake-Brexit “Withdrawal Agreement”.
The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) is an EU-wide policy to gouge businesses in exchange for them "offsetting their carbon footprint". The anti-business policy could see prices of carbon doubling by 2021 and tripling in the next 12 years.
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WWF Flickr (CC)[/caption]
Another EU plan causing British Steel trouble is the major pro-China stance the bloc has taken, the antithesis of President Trump’s position on the matter. The U.S. President has decided to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States instead of outsourcing the nation’s backbone to China or India.
The European Union has had different ideas, welcoming Chinese hegemony with open arms. This doesn't just extend to the influence of Huawei in the tech sector. The Chinese government has been busily buying up a multitude of European, British, African, Latin American, and Caribbean assets previously held by Western governments or companies.
The European Union appears to be broadly in favor of it.
CHINA
While the EU has to take blame for its stupidity and naivety when dealing with China, it is the Chinese's policies themselves which are crippling traditional economies in the West which have failed to protect themselves against major disruptions foist upon us by China.
Without starring down China in the vein of President Trump, it is unlikely the communist giant will stop this behavior.
The nation overproduces and then dumps grossly underpriced steel on the world. Professor Ian Greenwood of Leeds University noted in 2017:
China’s hold over the international steel market is pretty clear. It produces half the world’s steel and in 2015, finished imports from China to the EU were up 140% on 2013. Imports now account for a quarter of the EU market, and at the same time, prices for a range of major EU product classes have collapsed.
Without starring down China in the vein of President Trump, it is unlikely the communist giant will stop this behavior.
GLOBALISM
It's also as much the fault of successive, feckless UK governments more committed to corporate profit and globalism than its own people.
Prof Greenwood also noted: "In the UK, imports are also on the up. According to UK trade association UK Steel, imports accounted for 60% of UK demand in 2015, up from 57% in 2012. Chinese steel imports accounted for 11% of 2015 UK steel demand, up from 2% in 2011. UK imports from the EU remain twice as high as from the rest of the world, but no one can escape downward pricing pressure from such a huge player."
The shift from a manufacturing to a financial sector based economy has deeply hurt Britain.
Now, droves of students are encouraged to attend university and pursue careers they're either not cut out for, or that there aren't enough jobs in in the first place. Of course they're racking up massive debt while all this is going on. All with the hope of landing a gig in the already over-sized City of London.
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Designed in the USA, Made in China[/caption]
Meanwhile successive politicians – many with their own vested financial interests in China's economy – encourage foreign governments and state-run business to asset strip the United Kingdom. Around 10 per cent of Westminster, the central-most borough of London, is owned by foreign corporations.
BREXIT
Political figures, media figures, and just about everyone else with a vested interested in thwarting the Brexit vote of 2016 will blame the loss of these jobs on Brexit. They fit into two camps: 1) Liars, 2) Idiots.
- The Liars – These are the people who know full well that the explanation of how this is even remotely connected to Brexit includes all of the above points. But they stop during their reporting on the matter, simply stating: "because of Brexit" or by saying "Brexit-related job losses". The truth is these are EU-related jobs losses;
- The Idiots – These are the people who actually have no idea how any of this happened. They didn't even know British Steel was still a thing before hearing this news item. But they've heard it is somehow related to Brexit so they're angry about it and will pretend to know what is going on until they've beaten you into submission with Liberal Democrat talking points.
Speaking of which, Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat Energy spokesman, fits into the former category. At least I hope he does.
Above you can see Davey parroting a line from the privately held British Steel, that they face "Brexit issues".
But the "Brexit issues" they face are actually that Brexit hasn't happened, combined with their wafer thin margins, Chinese dumping, and the European Trading Scheme punishments now being lobbed at UK companies by the EU.
If Mrs. May had any interest in representing the United Kingdom, she'd unilaterally suspend negotiations with the EU and pursue the long-awaited (and sort of inevitable) "hard" Brexit that would put an end to the games being played by Brussels.
But since she is one of them, we had better not hold our breath.
The best thing we can do is make sure more people know this isn't a "Brexit-related loss", this a globalism-induced loss.
Raheem Kassam is the Global Editor in Chief of HumanEvents.com
