Dr Fox's Department for International Trade (DIT) is coming under fire. The National audit office says the DIT is not fit for purpose (HERE) and it ‘has not yet defined the range of capabilities and level of capacity it will require to undertake its role in delivering an independent UK trade function’. In other words it hasn't even defined what it needs to do yet. Stunning isn't it?
Of course, some will say the DIT can't define what it needs until our future relationship with the EU is finalised. But the NAO criticism is about staff turnover and missed deadlines.
Meg Hillier, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee said, "it was a 'deeply worrying' picture of missed deadlines and an inability to recruit top trade negotiators. Failure to get the right trade deals in place from day one of Brexit could mean higher prices, lost jobs, and companies going out of business,”
“So, it is deeply worrying that the NAO’s report says DIT is already behind schedule, and it is not clear how it will be able to get the negotiators it needs.
And separately, EU diplomats say we have not yet made any approaches to the EU to ask for help in rolling over the 65 or so trade deals we risk losing when we exit the bloc in March 2019 (HERE). The EU is apparently ready to help in a process they think is fraught with difficulties but we haven't actually made contact with Brussels yet.
We don't know where we're going, what we need or how to go about getting there. It's an absolute dog's breakfast that is being hidden from the public. But one day we will know the extent of it.
