Thread by @Jim_Cornelius

@_HenryBolton This complete nonsense. The 20% figure is pure fantasy.

On the majority of goods imported into the UK tariffs don't apply because they are imported:

1 From EU
2 From FTA partners at 0%
3 From developing countries at 0%
4 Under a tariff quota at 0%
5 On a 0% tariff rating anyway

@_HenryBolton Before the UK joined the EEC in 1973 we had tariffs and quota restrictions on non-Commonwealth and even some Commonwealth goods that were higher than the EEC's Common External Tariff, and after Brexit we will still have tariffs. The Dept of Intl Trade has no plans to reduce them.

@_HenryBolton EU tariff rates are on the more liberal side compared to other nations and because of EU Trade preferences and free trade deals they do mot apply in many cases.

The World Bank published a report on trade preferences a few months ago.

documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/655…

@_HenryBolton There's a nice graph on page 10.

The top orange dot is the average trade-weighted MFN tariff. Preferences for FTA partners and developing countries pull this down to the green dot.

I have annotated it to highlight EU countries and some others for comparison

@_HenryBolton I have stacked rotated the EU section to make it a bit clearer.

Note how trade preferences mean that the average trade-weighted tariff (green dot) for EU countries ends up *BELOW* NZ, Australia, USA and Canada.

The lower tariffs from 3rd countries mean cheaper imports for us.

@_HenryBolton Looking at agricultural goods we can how preferences affect tariffs.

Here is a table of average agricultural tariffs OECD countries outside of the EU, the UK/EU, and a few others for comparison. EU already in he lower half is lower still once preferences are taken into account.

@_HenryBolton And here for non-agricultural goods.

@_HenryBolton As for all this making goods more expensive. It's simply not true as a comparison of retail prices easily shows.

USA on the left, UK on the right.

Source: numbeo.com/cost-of-living…

@_HenryBolton "#NoDeal can make goods cheaper. "

I have 't even hinted on the fact that no deal means no FTAs, so all UK exports will be subject to tariffs from 3rd countries under WTO, MFN terms. If we unilaterally lowered tariffs as you suggest, what leverage is there then for trade deals?