US tariffs show danger of EU membership

Madam, – Nicola Sturgeon’s self confessed, unconditional love affair with the EU and Brussels bureaucracy must have taken a bit of a battering when she learned that the US was intending to impose a 25% tariff on imports of whisky, cashmere sweaters, dairy products, aircraft and aircraft parts in retaliation over EU subsidies given to the aviation giant Airbus (First minister condemns US plans to set 25% tariffs on Scotch whisky, Courier, October 4).

Any benefit Ms Sturgeon discerns in being tied to the European Union must have evaporated as she witnesses punitive tariffs being wielded against one of Scotland’s biggest and most successful industries, directly employing about 11,000 Scots, as a result of decisions taken by faceless bureaucrats in Brussels.

It should now be abundantly clear that if Scotland was a fully paid up member of the EU not only would we lose the 111 separate powers that will be returned after Brexit, including control over fishing and agriculture, but we also lose the ability to negotiate trade deals independently.

Our influence on Brussels in foreign and trade affairs would be minimal and keep on being reduced with the policy of an “ever closer union”, which is essentially what the Lisbon Treaty proposes.

Ms Sturgeon, the “Remainers” and nationalists may consider this loss of independence and sovereignty a price worth paying to be a fully integrated region of Europe rather than an independent nation state.

The Scots electorate may beg to differ.

Iain G Richmond. Guildy House, Monikie.