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Over the last couple of years we've heard continuously from Brexiteers that one individual is the UK's leading trade expert - he has advised Ministers and happens to back no-deal Brexit. I think there should be more competition (niche thread) 1/
Many in the UK trade policy community think of Alan Winters as the lead expert - he's written extensively, advised pretty much everyone, and worked for Gov departments, World Bank etc.... 2/ sussex.ac.uk/profiles/97501
Unbelievable I know but Alan Winters is not on twitter. He also doesn't write extensively on Brexit. But he did write a rather stinging rebuke to Peter Lilley over the latter's claim about a WTO terms Brexit 3/ politics.co.uk/comment-analys…
Alan's Sussex University colleague Jim Rollo is similarly twitter shy. But there's more serious credentials here, Foreign Office, consultant to Governments, Chatham House etc 4/ chathamhouse.org/expert/jim-rol…
Along with more tech-savvy colleague @pholmes8 Jim Rollo noticed in December 2017 that "only an extremely soft Brexit will begin to deal with the problem of keeping the Irish border open", which apparently the Cabinet did not 5/ blogs.sussex.ac.uk/uktpo/2017/12/…
Too academic? Well Sir Simon Fraser was, before ascending great heights at the Foreign Office, head of Cabinet for EU Trade Negotiation Mandelson. We can assume he saw a fair bit of trade action in that role, also learned about the EU... 6/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Fra…
Oddly enough @SimonFraser00 also does not seem to have a high opinion of Brexiteer negotiating approaches... 7/
How about trade law, you want Dr @Lorand_Bartels who has a fearsome knowledge of WTO law, and has probably advised pretty much every Government going on it... 8/ ceenrg.landecon.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-lora…
Strangely enough Lorand Bartels has also disagreed with those Brexiteers who praise the wonders of WTO Brexit, which should worry them given his WTO knowledge... 9/
So far too male, so how about @IanaDreyer, founder of trade specialist journal @borderlex, who tracks negotiations globally, but particularly in the EU. One of my co-founders of @UKTradeForum and sometime London resident... 10/ 
Ah, but Iana is also not well disposed towards Brexiteers either, so this starts to look like a pattern... 11/
Fellow journalist @alanbeattie was global trade editor at the FT for years, and still writes on Brexit and trade. A real expert. Another who doesn't necessarily see the glorious upsides of WTO Brexit.... 12/ ft.com/content/f315f2…
His predecessor as FT Trade Editor, @guydej1? No, not him either... 13/ prospectmagazine.co.uk/economics-and-…
Going back to experts, not too British to brag too much, but @ECIPE is a specialist trade policy and international economics think-tank. For example Roderick Abbot is a former Deputy DG of the WTO... 14/ ecipe.org/person/roderic…
My learned colleague @leemakiyama is widely acknowledged as a global authority on trade policy. He has got a little bored of Brexit discussions, but he wasn't exactly aligned with the Brexiteer folk... 15/ politico.eu/article/brexit…
Incidentally I spent over three years talking most weeks with EU and US negotiators. Not that the UK government or the WTO-terms Brexiteers who want a US trade deal have ever asked me about this experience 16/ uktradeforum.net/2018/06/14/is-…
Back in the heady days of TTIP negotiations, 2013 - 2016, others engaging extensively from the UK included @AllieRenison @SamuelMarcLowe @GabrielSilesB. Since then I've been fortunate to meet other UK trade experts like @AnnaJerzewska @hhesterm and many more... 17/
So to draw to the conclusion, writing a book and advising various Governments on trade policy does not in fact make you unique in the UK context - something media and UK ministers might perhaps recognise more... 18/ end iea.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
PS I really shouldn't have done that, every trade expert in the UK and probably the world I didn't name is going to be upset. @DmitryOpines and @GeorgeMRiddell in particular...
