The government has sneaked out an announcement that a continuity trade deal, extending one of the forty or so that we already have inside the EU, has been agreed. As far as I know this is the second agreement actually signed and given the significance we might have expected a fan fare and a lead item on the main news. In fact it came out six days ago as if it the Trade department didn't want anyone to know.
Perhaps it isn't surprising, the deal is with the Faroe Islands (HERE) and covers £200 million of fish imports. This follows a similar arrangement signed with Chile (Chile!) a few days ago (HERE) said to represent $1.36 billion (£1 billion).
Bear in mind our total trade with the EU and countries with whom they have an FTA is running at around £700 billion a year.
So, the Faroe deal covers about 0.03% of trade while the one with Chile represents 0.15%. So only 99.82% of our trade to sort out in 50 days.
According to this report on the Small Business website (HERE) the government held a meeting recently with business leaders and were told 'most' of the 40 or so FTAs would NOT be rolled over. They were apparently left 'fuming'.
Deals with Switzerland, Israel and some African countries might be concluded but the government didn't provide a list of those deals that definitely wouldn't be ready and they also told attendees that, 'the contents of the meeting were confidential, meaning that members aren’t able to brief their members in detail'.
I assume that means the people attending can't tell us they haven't been told how many trade deals would be lost on March 29th. You could not make it up.
The Guardian HERE have a story along the same lines - it's titled: Forget new trade deals – Britain’s struggling to keep the ones it has. The article quotes our doctor come trade negotiator Liam Fox, in October 2017 telling the Tory conference:
“I hear people saying, ‘Oh, we won’t have any [free trade agreements] before we leave’. Well, believe me we’ll have up to 40 ready for one second after midnight in March 2019.”
If he ever offers you any treatment for a medical condition - my advice would be to consult a trade negotiator first. It'll probably be safer.
