The original swivel eyed Brexiteer, now the International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, has been answering questions in the House on EU Trade Agreements - Replication (HERE). I assume this was a long scheduled appearance so one can only assume The Sun's decision to publish a leaked document showing how little progress has been made, was down to mischief and demonstrates he is not popular at Wapping.
The leaked analysis (HERE) shows out of the 40 EU FTAs just six are likely to be ready by March 29th. The Economist report is HERE. The Sun says:
"Amber warnings are given to nine countries - including major agreements with economic powerhouses South Korea and Canada – which are dubbed: “Deliverability by March 29 as off-track”.
"And red and black warnings are given to 23 other EU deals, including big trading partners Japan, Turkey and Mexico, which are given no chance of being completed by Brexit Day".
Since he promised in October 2017 that he would have 'up to forty' ready for a second after midnight on March 30th, as you can imagine, he was given a hard time. After all, six is quite a long way from 40. Several members asked him about his words at the 2017 Tory conference but he had a ready answer. This is his exchange with Hilary Benn:
Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)
"The past two and a half years have been a very painful process, as the wild and optimistic promises about what could be achieved from the Brexit process have collided with reality. That includes what the Secretary of State said to the Conservative party conference in the autumn of 2017. The question I wish to put to him is simply this: why does he think that it has proved so difficult to roll over all these deals, when he told that conference that it would be a very easy thing to do and he was confident of achieving it?"
"If we get an agreement via the withdrawal agreement with our European Union partners, that is exactly what will happen: those agreements will roll over. Let me explain to the House why: the United Kingdom will be deemed by the European Union to continue to be party to those agreements. We will get continuity, but we will not get the same continuity if we do not get an agreement with the EU. Those who continue, by their actions, to make no deal more likely will have to be responsible for the consequences".
One has to admire his chutzpah. The transition period where we might be able to roll over these trade deals was requested by Theresa May in late September 2017 (HERE). Fox's promise to activists was on 2nd October, about a week later when he had no idea if there would be a transition period or not and in any case these are his exact words (HERE):
"We're going to replicate the 40 EU free trade agreements that exist before we leave the European Union so we've got no disruption of trade," Fox told a Conservative party fringe event in Manchester.
"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," he told cheering Tory activists".
He didn't mention to his cheering followers that it was all contingent on the Withdrawal Agreement and note he says 'up to' forty. If he really intended these to be rolled over by the transition period it would surely have applied to all forty? I don't believe he ever intended the WA to cover the FTAs at all. He latest excuse is just a clever wheeze to get him out of a hole. What a slippery chancer he is.
In the debate he also hinted that some potential trade partners have asked us to lower our human rights standards (HERE) something he claims he is 'not inclined to do' - which doesn't sound like an unequivocal no to me.
And the Huffington Post (HERE) carry a report about lobbyists from the US meat industry speaking at an evidence session in front of the powerful US Trade Policy Committee in Washington last month, the lobbyists also warned forcing the UK to accept chlorine-bleached chicken would require “hard negotiating”.
"In words which will also worry manufacturing unions, Griswold [ex-president of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones], said a new tariff regime should [?] 'politically sensitive sectors, like passenger vehicles'. He also said UK should 'free itself from the precautionary principle' which puts safety first when it comes to produce and machinery.
"Griswold added: 'You know, there are some very specific issues, hormone-treated beef, chlorine cleaned chicken, things like that, genetically modified organisms. There, the British public sensibilities may be, while they may be a little different than Continental Europe, they’re certainly somewhat different than the United States. And I think that is going to require some hard negotiating.'
"He admitted that moves which exposed British farmers to US competition post-Brexit would also be 'politically sensitive' some tariffs were 'indefensibly high' "
He said: “And we need to, as soon as they’re outside the customs, you need to negotiate to get those down to zero as soon as possible.”
So we can see where the Americans are coming from. The precautionary principle he talks about is the principle of not developing things which later prove harmful - being sure they're not likely to harm human health or the environment before releasing them for sale. If we drop it, as the US want, watch out for examples like tobacco, Thalidomide, DDT and asbestos in future years. The makers get all the profits and society picks up the bill.
Oh and lets ignore the problems of hormone treated beef and chlorine washed chicken. It's very, very cheap and we will all be able to quickly develop a backside that looks like the R101 as we waddle past the lines of unemployed farmers outside the Job centre.
