1/ Exciting! For those curious what this means:
A WTO Goods schedule lists maximum tariffs a country agrees it can charge.
A schedule is 'certified' by the @wto Director General only if there are no objections.
Note: A country **CAN** operate with an uncertified schedule.
A WTO Goods schedule lists maximum tariffs a country agrees it can charge.
A schedule is 'certified' by the @wto Director General only if there are no objections.
Note: A country **CAN** operate with an uncertified schedule.
2/ Will WTO Members agree to let this schedule be certified?
They may. By doing so however, they would be accepting everything in the schedule as a fair reflection of the UK's obligations post-Brexit.
More likely they'll at the least put certification on hold for a while.
They may. By doing so however, they would be accepting everything in the schedule as a fair reflection of the UK's obligations post-Brexit.
More likely they'll at the least put certification on hold for a while.
3/ What will having an uncertified schedule mean in practice?
Not the end of the world. Two things.
1) An uncertified schedule makes it more likely someone is at least open to a WTO dispute against the UK where its new commitments fall short of the EU's overall commitments.
Not the end of the world. Two things.
1) An uncertified schedule makes it more likely someone is at least open to a WTO dispute against the UK where its new commitments fall short of the EU's overall commitments.
4/
2) An uncertified schedule also makes negotiating bilateral or plurilateral free trade agreements a little bit more complicated because there is ambiguity on where to start.
A WTO Members schedule is often the 'baseline' against which negotiating outcomes are compared.
2) An uncertified schedule also makes negotiating bilateral or plurilateral free trade agreements a little bit more complicated because there is ambiguity on where to start.
A WTO Members schedule is often the 'baseline' against which negotiating outcomes are compared.
