The issue with nationalistic populist politics about ending global interdependence is that the world’s supply chain is too integrated to simply quit global partnerships. Brexit and the election of Donald Trump is based on the fallacy that immigration is bad for countries and the global supply chains erode national sovereignty. They don’t, but if even if they did, it is too late to end the global supply chain.
Brexit proves this.
As the reader likely knows, the United Kingdoms’ quest to leave the European Union (EU) is mired in the reality that the global supply chain is too complex to quit. The UK simply cannot leave the EU because it is too intertwined culturally and economically. Likewise, Trump cannot lead the United States towards isolation behind a wall. This is proven by the urgency Donald Trump has in having NAFTA 2.0 – also known as USMCA – signed into law by Congress.
To prove this let’s look at what my business’ support and customer service teams have been focused on this year.
Domain names ending in EU.
Relatively speaking, my company is small compared to Apple, Microsoft and Go Daddy, yet Brexit has caused some of our clients serious heartburn over the last year.
Why?
Because those clients registered domain names ending in EU, as in company.eu.
Some of those clients are startups who invested heavily in the EU tld for their branding.
The clients who are based in England are now trying to figure out what to do about their branding around the eu.
The problem is that the .eu domain name is only for people and companies who are in the European Union.
If, or when the United Kingdom leaves the EU, those individuals and companies will no longer be allowed to register an EU domain name. This is not a significant problem for those starting out as their investment in their branding is minimal.
But those individuals and companies who built a brand around the EU are now faced with having to start their branding campaigns over again, or creatively look for ways to establish themselves in the EU, even though they remain in the UK.
The problem they face is that they will not be able to renew or keep their domain names after the UK exits the EU, assuming it does.
Last month, our UK clients with EU domain names received notices that on January 1, 2020, their EU domain registrations would be deleted if they cannot demonstrate they meet the requirements for an EU domain name, i.e. citizen or established in the EU.
Their websites will cease to work.
We’ve offered our clients different workarounds for their branding. But the issue remains unresolved because the UK has not left the EU and it remains to be seen if it does.
In the meantime, UK businesses using EU domain names remain in flux, unable to make long range branding plans.
In the grand scheme of issues, the domain name debacle is a small nuisance, although our clients do not see it that way.
But it perfectly illustrates the complexity of Brexit and any other such schemes. If something as small is a domain name can be this affected by Brexit, imagine mixed citizenship families, immigrants, health insurance, economies, debts and many, many other things that are part of the global economy.
Clearly, the reason that Brexit is failing is because it was knee-jerk reaction to a perceived problem that does not exist – immigrants abusing national systems.
