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Alan Beattie
@alanbeattie
, 9 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
RARE GOOD NEWS ON UK TRADE POLICY KLAXON: UK gets permission to remain a member of WTO government procurement agreement, retains access to $1.7 trillion public tenders market. Story up on ft.com soon. Tweetstream on post-Brexit UK trade policy follows. 1/n
Three announcements on UK post-Brexit trade this week. One provoked outrage; two didn’t. Relatively uncontroversial ones: 1. UK stays in WTO GPA, overcame objections from US, Moldova, others. 2/n
2. Details released on what goods UK would continue to impose trade remedies ie antidumping and antisubsidy duties on unfairly-priced imports. (Bit of a rush to get the UK’s trade remedies authority set up in time tbf). gov.uk/government/new… ft.com/content/4bf6eb…
Neither a big shock because progress in both flagged last year. Both processes run by civil servants, not much political input. Trade remedies in particular had nearly a year’s consultation with business. 4/n
Controversial one was 3. what tariffs UK will impose generally after Brexit. Only sorted out after massive fight between Gove/Fox/Hammond in cabinet committee the other week. General business outrage at the lack of transparency. ft.com/content/7bc687… 5/n
Not surprising: you’re a Welsh sheep farmer and you find just a month before Brexit day whether your livelihood will be destroyed by cheap lamb imports or not. Just think about that for a second. Your mortgage, your kids' future. Unbelievable. 6/n
Moral of story: UK civil servants, even given relative lack of trade experience, are generally pretty good. Leave them to get on with stuff and they do it. Incompetent ministerial infighting screws things up. 7/n
One reason the Commission and EU27 are baffled at how bad UK has been in Brexit talks is they are used to dealing day-to-day with high-quality UK civil servants, not rubbish ministers. 8/n
Fair enough tariffs have political angle, can’t just be left to technocrats. But FFS get public/biz consultations done with expertise involved, make decisions early. Here endeth the lesson. Gorgeous day in Geneva today btw. I've not been here since the Doha round failed. 9/9
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More from @alanbeattie see all

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Alan Beattie
@alanbeattie
Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Sugar is an interesting example of how what ought to be an efficient global commodity market has historically been distorted by trade policy interventions, often based on political economy reflecting path dependency, an obvious example... 1/n
...being the EU sugar regime which for a long time held up the European relative to the world price through a combination of tariffs and domestic production quotas in order to maintain a northern European sugar beet industry which was in itself a legacy of self-sufficiency... 2/n
... during the Napoleonic wars when the Royal Navy blockaded continental European ports, that regime also permitting imports through a system of quotas mainly granted to Caribbean and African former European colonies, an odd wrinkle of which was the UK company Tate & Lyle....3/n
Read 8 tweets
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Alan Beattie
@alanbeattie
A few morning-after thoughts on last night's EU-US trade announcement. First up: bold move from the Commission. A big surprise to many including members of Congress and EU member states (and, rather less importantly, me). 1/n ft.com/content/b97410…
Some of the deal can easily be achieved as they are meaningless - the soybean and LNG parts, which the EU is already doing. If Trump continues to believe these are concessions he is v gullible indeed, and hats off to the Commission for fooling him. Let's no-one tell him, eh. 2/n
Some bits are clearly impossible & will have to be quietly forgotten to make deal work eg ending all non-tariff barriers & non-auto industrial subsidies. This wd mean wholesale dismantling of EU regulation. Zero subsidies also means no cash for Airbus or Boeing. Non-starter. 3/n
Read 7 tweets

Related threads

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Peter Ungphakorn
@CoppetainPU
A valuable deal and a tribute to pragmatism by the parties to the Government Procurement Agreement. It’s the only WTO agreement the UK has to “rejoin” because it’s the only one signed only by the EU, not by its member states.

But it wasn’t difficult



1/5
There was no real negotiation on substance. In June the UK proposed sticking to its present commitments as an EU member (list of government agencies & the size of procurement open to international competition). This was agreed in less than 6 months.

wto.org/english/news_e…

2/5
The hard work was answering questions from members, largely satisfied.

Time was needed to sort out the legal drafting of the official decision, on how best to say this was essentially status quo. One revision and it was agreed.

3/5
docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/F… Screenshot of search result for all WTO documents on the UK's accession to the Government Procurement Agreement, part 1Screenshot of search result for all WTO documents on the UK's accession to the Government Procurement Agreement, part 2Screenshot of search result for all WTO documents on the UK's accession to the Government Procurement Agreement, part 3
Read 8 tweets
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International Trade Committee
@CommonsIntTrade
Our session with @LiamFox has now started. Keep an eye on our twitter page for updates and watch live here: goo.gl/hKxVwX
.@LiamFox: It’s not in anyone’s interest to have no deal …. It would undoubtedly cause economic disruption. #trade #Brexit
.@nigelmp asks: Can you give a guarantee that we will be leaving the EU on 29 March?
@LiamFox: The Prime Minister made clear to the Cabinet yesterday that the focus is on leaving on 29 March.
Read 8 tweets
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Bryce Baschuk
@bbaschuk
In three months the UK plans to exit the EU.
Absent any transition agreement, the UK will become an independent member of the @wto and must ensure its joint WTO commitments are disentangled from the EU.
2/
@wto In order to become an independent @wto member the UK must do 3 things:
I) Re-join the Government Procurement Agreement
II) Submit an independent WTO goods schedule
III) Submit an independent WTO services schedule
3/
@wto I) GPA:
The UK has already taken steps to rejoin the @wto GPA - a $1.7 trillion plurilateral accord that governs public procurement rules among 46 nations.
Details here: bit.ly/2yA8IPk
4/
Read 25 tweets
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Bryce Baschuk
@bbaschuk
SCOOP: U.K. Wins Provisional Support to Join $1.7 Trillion @wto Deal:

bloom.bg/2BBzJ5e
@wto Today's GPA 'agreement in principle' is a huge improvement from a month ago & indicates that the UK was successful in its bilateral efforts to address concerns of GPA members -- such as Moldova (bloom.bg/2EENKTp) -- who objected to the U.K.'s market access offer in October
@wto Government Procurement Agreement members said their previous concerns have been addressed and they could now support an 'agreement in principle' on the U.K.'s market access offer to rejoin the GPA.
Read 12 tweets
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Bryce Baschuk
@bbaschuk
SCOOP: U.S. Weighs Blocking U.K. From Global Procurement Pact: bloom.bg/2PlonGV
This is an important development that could have serious ramifications for U.K. public procurement providers.
Thread ->> 1/
The U.K. needs the U.S. and others to approve its offer to rejoin the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) -- a $1.7 trillion plurilateral accord that governs public procurement rules among 19 parties.
2/
Read 17 tweets
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Julie Laumann 🌎
@Otpor17
"Trump has used Harley-Davidson as an example of a US business that is being harmed by trade barriers. Yet Harley has warned consistently against tariffs, saying they would negatively impact sales"

Harley, hit by tariffs, shifts some production overseas apnews.com/6c8942f7363743…
Important issue highlighted by @riotwomennn: are tariff exemptions determined by bribes?

Corker: "22,000 companies have asked for exemptions.There is no basis to deal with them. Are they going to grant these exclusions based on political contributions?"
Trump’s trade war with the European Union is going to cost Harley-Davidson as much as $100 million a year and force the manufacturer to shift production out of the U.S. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 232 tweets

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