So, if the UK signs up to a Customs Union with the EU likely to last quite a few years, plus various regulatory alignment, does that make the Department of International Trade redundant? No, because there's a lot more to trade policy than tariffs - thread 1/
Obvious first point - services. Not covered in a customs union, a UK strength, and was going to be an area of focus in trade deals. But trade deals aren't great on services, and the trade off with reducing agriculture tariffs always looked problematic 2/
We should be able to sign services agreements - or push the Trade in Services Agreement at the WTO. Government have suggested we could include visas / migration in trade agreements, so we have something to offer 3/
Beyond services, market access cases, under existing trade agreements or not. This is going to be a big issue for the UK in any case outside of the EU, and Government and business need to be ready to work together on these 4/
WTO as already mentioned, we will be an independent member of the WTO (although with schedules to be determined by the nature of our customs union arrangement). What can we achieve for example in some of the committees? Though Trump... 5/
Obviously ensuring that all EU trade agreements apply to the UK, and that we get reciprocal access, particularly to newer agreements like Japan, Singapore, Vietnam. Not a trivial task 6/
In terms of UK companies trading one of Government's most significant jobs will be to try to influence EU regulations when we are not a member. This will require increased efforts in Brussels 7/
Assuming we remain part of the EU voluntary standards community this will give us some continuing influence on technical regulations. We can boost that with extra effort in international standards bodies like UNECE etc 8/
Trade and investment promotion obviously continues, indeed probably needs to be emphasised further given an uncertain investment climate. The link between this and trade policy needs to be strengthened 9/
Then there are the sectoral agreements, the veterinary equivalence or the nutual recognition of professional qualifications. There may be options in terms of mutual recognition of testing results 10/
There are potential domestic reforms, what more can we do to encourage digital trade, finally implementing the customs single window, etc 11/
Much of this may sound trivial, but these are the small issues that are grouped together in one big trade agreement. That's why they take so long to negotiate. Trade agreements help to generate the political commitment to change, but you can do many things outside them 12/
It has been said many time but bears repeating - trade deals as the Brexit dividend have been wildly oversold - agreements with the likes of Australia may add 0.1% to GDP, nice but not spectacular. A deal with the US would be hugely controversial 13/
Does this mean a Customs Union with the EU is fine? Not necessarily - it won't be an equal partnership, and it really isn't ideal to not have control of your own tariffs without a say on them. EEA would potentially give you more say and tariff control 14/
Nonetheless there's a big job to be done on trade policy outside the EU regardless of the relationship in the next few years, and perhaps not being able to negotiate the Free Trade Agreements may focus minds on what we actually want as a country 15/ ends
