cool. What do you think about the future of timber construction for houses and commercial?
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cool. What do you think about the future of timber construction for houses and commercial?
Import prices will rise as the pound falls. So let’s see how those prices compared to what they were before Brexit. I bet the weekly shop goes up, not down.
Errm we couldn't without agreeing the to the terms of there market. Eg movement of people (there is nothing wrong with the movement of people, its brilliant)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market
Have a look at the four freedoms, people also call them pillars.
You see you can't have one without the other according to the EU. Yet these rules bend... If you look at the first part Turkey has a unique agreement.
Yes definitely a future, particularly now where the timber is so strictly controlled (provided it comes from reputable and sustainable sources).
Clean that one up
You are looking at this without globalisation or to which the EU tariff works too.
You see we import lots from the EU, they import lots from abroad. The question is if I import a nut from Brazil which one is cheaper or more cost efficient. Using the WTO or the EU rules - as a temporary measure we are using zero on import.
But as we've discussed, this could be at a detriment to quality of products. But my argument is that our framework is the same as the EU. Will always be abiding by this.
You are looking at this without globalisation or to which the EU tariff works too.
You see we import lots from the EU, they import lots from abroad. The question is if I import a nut from Brazil which one is cheaper or more cost efficient. Using the WTO or the EU rules - as a temporary measure we are using zero on import.
But as we've discussed, this could be at a detriment to quality of products. But my argument is that our framework is the same as the EU. Will always be abiding by this.
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Corbyn thinks he can - but Turkey does not have the same relationship (please not again)
Got a lot of catching up to do just to stay still with all the agreements the UK has because of its membership of the EU and don't forget the new trade deals will be the responsibility of:
I see the face I'm not playing that video.
But run a scenario for fun:
Which is cheaper: timber from Brazil or timber from the EU outside the EU?
Turkey isn't part of the single market.
Brazil is a bit complicated at the moment. The EU have been negotiating a FTA with the South American countries (MERCOSUR) which was due to be ratified imminently but because of the current problems wth Bolsinaro and the Amazon it could be dropped. Of course if the UK leave the EU and there was a FTA then it would not apply to them. However as the timber is sold in US$ it could become rather more expensive than now simply because of the devaluation of Sterling when the UK leave.
Talking of timber I thought I'd havea look at the government's papers on timber and this made me chuckle a bit
"After March 2019 if there’s no deal
When the UK leaves the EU, EU law will no longer apply. We will implement our own UK timber regulation and UK FLEGT regulation, which will have the same requirements as the EUTR and EU FLEGT regulations."
Is Scandi timber top quality? I assume so and that anything out of China is the crap stuff.
Boris Johnson seeks legal advice on five-week parliament closure ahead of Brexit
Secret plan to block any delay in leaving EU is likely to anger European leaders at G7 summit
Secret plan to block any delay in leaving EU is likely to anger European leaders at G7 summit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/24/johnson-seeks-legal-advice-parliament-closure
So much for wanting to control their own laws... their true colours are being revealed.
So, apparently, a trade deal with the US is done and ready to be signed. 
Sounds like how Trump has 'solved' the North Korea problem. With what Johnson has said about the US-China trade spat, what are the odds Trump throws his dummy out and declares on Twitter that Boris is a fool and the UK will never have a trade deal?
Sounds like how Trump has 'solved' the North Korea problem. With what Johnson has said about the US-China trade spat, what are the odds Trump throws his dummy out and declares on Twitter that Boris is a fool and the UK will never have a trade deal?
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Hmm, always wary when the Express is the source.So, apparently, a trade deal with the US is done and ready to be signed.
Sounds like how Trump has 'solved' the North Korea problem. With what Johnson has said about the US-China trade spat, what are the odds Trump throws his dummy out and declares on Twitter that Boris is a fool and the UK will never have a trade deal?
I don't think he's stupid enough to do it. London would grind to a halt with the protests you'd see, it'd no doubt get very nasty.
Yeah, I imagine it is bs. But I did wonder the chance Trump falls out with Boris this weekend.
Just a likely leak (lie) to try and add pressure on the EU. Trump administration policy is the USA first so I'm not sure the UK will get any favours. We'll likely end up with a worse deal than staying with the EU.So, apparently, a trade deal with the US is done and ready to be signed.
Sounds like how Trump has 'solved' the North Korea problem. With what Johnson has said about the US-China trade spat, what are the odds Trump throws his dummy out and declares on Twitter that Boris is a fool and the UK will never have a trade deal?
Business is business whether USA is dealing with the UK, China, Brazil, or Canada.
I don't think he will fall out.
He wants to break up the EU and Boris and Farage are his golden spoon.
As if either Trump or Johnson can get a deal through congress/parliament
I know about the 4 freedoms. My point is May decided her red lines without recourse to anyone else. There was no debate about the form of Brexit we could have had post leaving, when she was drawing up the UK position. Which has ended up with people like you talking about no deal and WTO rules and a minority view within the Tory party setting the agenda. There were alternatives to this mess. Anyway, it’s all moot now, we’ll have to wait for the Brexit inquiry in 5 years after this has all gone tits up.
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just some nonsense for the Sunday papers, to keep them occupied and to make it look like Johnson is doing something. Same things as for the “seeking legal advice on suspending parliament.” Doesn’t have to be true, just has to be crap the brexiters like and will annoy remainers. Forum fodder to wind up people like us.
Yes and the company is big reliable,well known and deal with legal timber.
China is pot luck, they can produce top quality material but trusting their certification/sourcing etc is a lottery and I've heard of many horror stories.
Those long French lunches (we have 2 hours a day for lunch) and the many holidays result in an extremely high productivity level. Staff are much more relaxed and focused on their work and aren’t rushing around every day, trying to grab food and rush to eat it, while stressing all the time.
Admittedly August is fecking annoying. I still don’t understand why they basically close the country that month..
There must be loads of added cost then, more insurance to cover for bad lots, over buying to make sure production doesn't stop etc. So it might be cheaper to buy in China, but how much does it cost overall?
Lots of HR studies have shown that taking a proper break in the middle of your work day is important, eating lunch at your desk is really bad for you. Add to that that in a lot of European countries lunch is the main meal of the day, so even before office work there's always been long breaks around lunch. Also, in some countries lunchtime is very hot, so workers productivity would be shit.
The August thing is probably left over from harvest time same as school holidays are.
Yeah the August thing is just mental though. Shops just close for several weeks. No thought of bringing in cover staff or anything, they just close and go on holiday. Public transport (in my city at least) switch to a totally different timetable. Considering there are still people trying to work and live during August, it’s hugely disruptive and annoying.
Oh I know, I used to sell into Europe a lot, August is pointless to try and call anyone. We all just used to go on holiday then as well
I could probably write a book about Chinese timber production and practices but they can keep their costs very low.
Couple of examples -
Illegally ship logs out of African countries aboard vessels that have brought in other produce but lay anchor out to sea when unloaded and supplied by barges in the middle of the night, freight costs are minimal because of their power with the shipping lines
Produce the products in China by paying workers even less than the African workers and ship the products to the west at freight costs of around 20% of what we pay in the west.
They also used to ship logs out of the USA (and probably still do) to China, produce the goods in China and ship back the finished product to the USA at a lower cost than producing them in the USA which led to a lot of timber producers going bust in the USA.
Strangely all the producers in China are FSC and PEFC certified whereas it is a difficult and expensive process.
There are also some companies who have all the latest technological machines which many in the west dream of.
Also on the surface the companies are operated by private individuals but many are actually state subsidised.
They don't operate on a level playing field.
I would imagine lots of countries have done or are still doing the same thing, but as you say, having that much influence over shipping lines definitely helps.
I guess, with the population China has, all this is just a rebalancing after China got back into world trade in the 80's. With all the reforms, it's taken a while, but with all the resources they have, they should be a super super trade power
The American work 'ethic' is horrific. It's the main reason why people are so angry, selfish and stressed out over here (IMO).
2 hours for lunch! I could not bear that, 30 mins is already enough
I'm not saying you are necessarily wrong, but the way you describe it can't be right.
You sound nice.
I was thinking of a different word. Certainly has a c in it.
That’s not how it works.
Just to elaborate on this @sun_tzu as I didn’t have time in the morning. For anyone else interested as well.
I had a HTB loan. The interest you pay starts at 1.75% and then increases by RPI +1%. So what that means is if RPI was 5% then your initial interest of 1.75% increases by 5+1% - but its not added as interest to the initial loan amount as you were calculating but to the actual interest rate. So the interest rate for year 7 would be 1.75 + 6% = 1.86% if we round up.
So the above example is interest payments for a £40k HTB loan with a steady worst case RPI of 5%, it’s never been that high since the 80s and even then the average was about 6.5%. Going back even further RPI was about 13.2% average in the 70s and even if that hyperinflation was sustained for the lifetime of the loan the maximum interest paid on the final year would be 4.6% which is still extremely low.
If we were to consider RPI for the last 20 years as a more current example (1994-2018) it has been an average of 2.8 increase year on year. Therefore the maximum yearly interest ever paid on the 25 year lifetime of the HTB loan would be 2.51% on the final year translated to £1000 for that year or about £83 a month. I say 25 years as it must be paid of by year 25.
So to conclude HTB loans are only a risk to the tax payer if the market goes tits up as the government equity would decrease however as the scheme opened in 2013 a lot of people who took them out, like myself, have remortgaged on the back of a sustained period of growth and have paid them back before the interest kicked in so the government has already made a healthy profit from people that have paid back. Roughly about 30% ROI on my loan as an example after 4.5 years.
So how long is your working day? And wtf do you do for 2 hours?You probably need to re-examine your life.
8 hour day. For 2 hours you disconnect from work, have a nice lunch, do whatever you please. Some people go for a run. Some just chat with friends etc.
For a lot of people, they don’t have a huge amount of time outside work. They have kids and commitments and life just becomes one huge rush. By ensuring work isn’t some crazy rush too, they’re much calmer and more productive.
Eat, chat, watch TV, listen to music, read, eat with your kids at home, have a walk/run. It depends a lot on where you work/live, lots of people also don't take or have 2 hours but 30 minutes.
Is that 10 hours less 2 unpaid for lunch, 9 to 7.30 for example?