Don’t forget Brexit will harm the EU as well as us

THERE is endless prediction of catastrophe for Britain if it leaves the EU. Perhaps a little attention should be directed at what might happen the EU if Britain leaves without agreement.

Italy entered ‘recession’ during the last quarter of 2018 while Germany just about avoided moving into similar territory.

Considering German growth and prosperity rely mainly on a thriving automotive industry, the prospect of losing 15% sales to the British market is not at all good news. A threat has also arisen that due to plant closures, the US may impose tariffs on European cars.

The ECB is being forced to delay the ending of quantitative easing – they are pumping hundreds of billions into economies trying to lift growth off the floor without any lasting success.

Add in the impact of the EU not receiving the approximate €40billion it expects as a goodbye payment and the approximate €15billion Britain contributes to EU coffers each year and a gaping hole begins to appear in EU finances.

EU ‘recession’ is not unthinkable. If a cash shortage develops, Germany will be expected, as the one most able to afford it, to bail the other members out. How readily German voters agree to such a solution is anybody’s guess.

At a time when the whole world is moving into economic slowdown and trade wars are a distinct possibility it might prove very foolhardy for the EU to persist with ‘no more negotiation’ in a situation where the British are forced to capitulate or else leave unilaterally.

Ireland still clings to the hope that the EU will remain steadfast about the ‘backstop’. Recent musings of a border encompassing Britain and the whole island of Ireland is a very sobering thought but should the future of continental EU becomes an issue Ireland could become expendable.

It is not too late for the Irish Government to initiate a softening of the ‘backstop’ stance. It will be of little consolation to have persisted to the end if the EU at the last moment relaxes on the backstop leaving Ireland abandoned but tethered geographically to a possibly hostile Britain.

The only thing we can be certain of at the moment is that minds are ever more concentrated in the EU regarding how to facilitate Britain so that trade remains as seamless as possible.

It may be ironic that fear of the disaster predicted for Britain, encompassing the EU, may be what softens Ireland’s backstop.

PADRAIC NEARY, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo. ...THE ‘bull in a china shop’ Brexit arrogant bluster of the Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney Government has come home to shock them at the temerity of the UK agricultural tariffs which will apply in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Did they really think the EU was going to protect farmers from an economic border which they assured themselves was never going to happen? This is only the beginning of tariffs and taxes Britain will take in its own defence against every and all vengeful EU measures undertaken by it and its willing puppets (Irish).

Take a good look at what is happening because we stupidly were used as a pathetic pawn to hurt our best friend. It is Britain we should have been courting all along with regard to our future.

Already European Union murmurings from Brussels are talking hard borders. Yet it will be Dublin forced to enforce it on the orders of Brussels. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork. ...DOES the proposal that the UK will not impose tariffs on crossborder trade but will impose tariffs on west/east trade mean the death of Holyhead and Fishguard ports? Will the road infrastructure of the six counties be able to handle the increased traffic that’s likely to result?

TOM BURKE, Dublin 15.