Thread by @Cynic_Guardian

@RealBobMortimer NO.

Common misconception: Unless there is an embargo or a law explicitly prohibiting trade (like e.g. selling nuclear material to North Korea) the UK was, is and will be free to trade with all 200+ countries on this planet. Regardless of being a member of the EU or not. 1/n

@RealBobMortimer The question is rather whether exports from UK are still viable once 'schedules' (quotas + tariffs) are applied at the destination country and whether customers in UK still can afford foreign products once those schedules are applied here. 2/n

@RealBobMortimer Also, those schedules have been negotiated by the EU and about 20 countries (incl. Russia) disagree with simply splitting them between UK and rEU27.

And btw, each of the 164 countries represented in WTO (by 164 unelected officials) has this right to a veto 3/n

@RealBobMortimer There are ways to settle such disputes, but this usually takes years - especially now that the USA under Trump has started to stonewall the WTO court by blocking the appointment of judges.

'Wait', i can hear you say, 'Court? Judges?' Yes, the WTO has a court of arbitration 4/n

@RealBobMortimer A court, that just like the CJEU will have superior authority over any british courts.

Maybe now you start to realize how stupid this whole blathering about "souvereignty' and 'take back control' really is.

But I'm drifting off, so let's get back to those... 5/n

@RealBobMortimer SCHEDULES.

Schedules are a combination of quotas and tariffs - which means that a certain amount of a product can be imported at no or very low tariffs and subsequent imports are tariffed more heavily.

Sounds complicated, so why is it done this way? 6/n

@RealBobMortimer Let's assume you run a little country on an island. Your people like lamb meat and consume roughly 1 million tons per year.

However, local farmers can only produce half of it, like 500.000 tons.

So you need to import the other half of 500.000 tons. 7/n

@RealBobMortimer Now there are some countries that can produce lamb meat very cheap (e.g. farms are bigger, wages are lower etc.). So you would probably want to import the missing 500.000 tons from them - but not more as that would undercut your local farmers and drive them out of business 8/n

@RealBobMortimer So you would want to negotiate a schedule like

first 500.000 tone - no tariffs
next 100.000 tons - some tariff (making it a bit more expensive than your local meat, but giving leeway for an increasing market
everything else - very high tariff (protecting your local farmers) 9/n

@RealBobMortimer But along comes a no deal Brexit and the other country now tells you: 'I want to have a tariff-free quote of 1million tons or i'll veto your schedules'.

20 countries have already realised that the UK is like a stuffed turkey at x-mas and want to have a bigger slice 10/n

@RealBobMortimer Good luck wir the other 144!

And this, dear readers, concludes our short lesson in economics for today. Thank you for reading!

11/11 END