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1/ This is an interesting video by @Channel4News but VERY FLAWED. Its a good primer for those who are unfamiliar with the brexit options however. Watch it and then we will then explain. THREAD #brexit
2/ We will start with the good bits. Their explainer on WTO rules is great (although we would like to have heard a mention about the deficiencies of GATS compared to the EU single market in services): 
3/ Their section on the Canada /Canada + model was good, with similar arguments to the ones we made in this report: efta4uk.eu/wp-content/upl…
4/ Sadly however, they forget to mention one of the key flaws of Canada+++ which is that the MFN clauses in FTAs the EU has recently signed limit the EU's scope to grant us concessions beyond CETA, even if the eu wished to.
5/ Their section on 🇨🇭is ok but with a few clarifications required. Channel 4 imply that the EU wouldn't replicate the Swiss arrangement because of its "more than 100 deals" between 🇪🇺&🇨🇭 - tbh, this isn't really the case. [cont]
6/ Yes, there are more than 100 bilateral agreements but they aren't all equally important. At the centre of the Swiss arrangement is a venerable, first generation Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The EU describes this as the cornerstone of EU - CH relations.
7/ As the EEC became the EC and then the EU (And Brussels took over more and more national competencies) the Swiss had to sign more and more bilaterals with it, to replace agreements that the Swiss previously had with the separate eu member states.
8/ In addition, since the Swiss people had rejected EEA membership in 1992 by 50.3% to 49.7%, the Swiss government took the narrow referendum result to negotiate "the bilateral agreements I + II" as a form of diluted, segmented EEA.
9/ But anyway, the EU's main issue with the Swiss type arrangement is in fact the Swiss refusal to come under either the ECJ European Court of Justice or EFTA court - in fact the EU have stated that they will sign no further agreements with the Swiss until they do.
10/ the EU is worried about granting third countries deep access to their markets without both sides being overseen by a neutral 'umpire' making sure all sides play by the rules. The UK probably could have a 🇨🇭type deal if we docked to the EFTA court.
11/ But if we are going down the Bilateral route, we should probably go down the 'Super 🇨🇭Swiss' route - (report not yet complete) taster below:
12/ But anyway, back to the Channel Four video. Our main criticism is that it states again the fallacy that the Norway model would mean 'no say' over the rules we would have to follow. We thoroughly debunk that idea here: /End @jonsnowC4 efta4uk.eu/wp-content/upl…
