By the U4 Economic and Enterprise Society
Imports and Exports
The fact that most
European counties aren’t buying the UKs goods, shows that European economic
trouble is affecting the UK as we are not getting as much money in from goods
as we should be. This can lead to unemployment in some sectors and losses of
great sums of money.
The Euro zone is
the UK's biggest trading partner. Official statistics show that nearly 47% of
UK exports went to the Euro zone in 2011, while nearly 43% of UK imports came
from the Euro zone. A long-term spiral of decline in the economies of Europe
would mean less demand for UK good and services, and that could mean
unemployment, especially in manufacturing. Governments have been pushing to
grow industries faster, but Euro zone uncertainty leads to a lack of confidence
among businesses.
This means we have
to look out of Europe to sell our goods, which costs a lot more because of the
longer journey and is bad for the environment. Over the past 4 years UK exports
to countries outside of Europe have grown at a faster rate than countries in the
Euro Zone. For example lots of goods are shipped to Australia, China, India and
Russia instead of European countries.
Movement of Labour
Unemployment in
the Euro area is falling but remains high compared to the UK, particularly in
countries like Greece and Spain. The UK allows people from the Euro area to
come to the UK and find jobs without any restrictions such as work permits.
Higher unemployment in Europe has meant that many people have come to the UK
looking for work. This may mean that it is harder for British people to find
work.
British people travelling abroad:
In the second quarter of 2013, GDP in
the Eurozone grew by 0.3%. This slow growth is affecting the British public who
wish to travel abroad. British citizens who travel abroad get more euros to the
pound due to the faster growth in GDP in Britain.
Tourism
in Greece: An important aspect
of Greece’s economy is tourism, supposedly tourism accounts for 17% of the
country's GDP and gives employment to a similar percentage of people.
However, political unrest means that tourism is
decreasing and that Greece will find it difficult to maintain these numbers. Greece
is attracting new groups of tourists, although European countries have fallen,
those from the Balkans and Russia have risen.
What can the government do about it?
The government is
trying to create relationships with countries outside of the EU. For example, David
Cameron has recently visited China to promote trade with them. We have seen Britain’s
trade with China increase 22% over the past three years. In addition to this the
government should decrease tariffs to make trading with Britain more
attractive.
The UK can work
closely with politicians in the European governments to help reduce the level
of European debt and restore confidence for investors in struggling Eurozone
economies.
Also on top of
this the government can focus on improving the attractiveness and quality of UK
goods. By investigating in education and training and technology.
Max Bacon,
Chris Carpenter, Tom Evans, Charlie Milne, Will Noble, Scott Norman, Sam
Robins, Asher Smith-Robson, Williams
