I'm no economist, but it would actually encourage us to buy stuff from abroad. A typical bongo 4 from Basscentral is $1645, which is £880 in english money. That's about a £200 saving from the usual english retail price, in theory. However, you lose a lot of that saving when you factor in VAT and import tax. I was considering buying my bongo from the USA until I found out EB wouldn't want anything to do with it if anything went wrong.
It's the same with a whole bunch of stuff. Loads of electrical goods, clothes, etc are cheaper in the USA. In fact, I've found that for a lot of things, if you take how much something costs you in the UK in sterling, that's approx. how much it will cost you in america in dollars. Say a CD costs you £14 in england, it'll cost you about $14 in america.
It just rules living in england