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Ben Chu
@BenChu_
, 5 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Remember those 40 European Union free trade deals that the Trade Secretary Liam Fox said would be rolled over by this week ensuring continuity of trade for UK exporters even if we experienced a no-deal Brexit?...
....as we know only eight of those 40 have actually been concluded (though a ninth was announced last week)...
....which is obviously bad news.

But @BBCNewsnight has further bad news about the eight deals that the Trade Department has actually got over the time...
...Working with @uk_tpo we have analysed the deals and found that they are 'incomplete' and not truly rolled over.

UK firms have potentially been misled by suggestions from ministers that trade with these countries would be uninterrupted

Story here: bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
...tune into @BBCNewsnight at 10.30pm for more.

ENDS
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Ben Chu
@BenChu_
Thread on Philip Hammond and the end of the no deal risk

1/ The Chancellor sought to reassure business leaders immediately after the colossal Parliamentary defeat of the Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday night that the UK would not crash out of the EU with no deal on 29 March....
2/ So how did he do this when, as the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and other hardline Brexiteers tell us, the law says we must leave on that date even if there is no deal?...
3/ Hammond pointed to the amendment being put forward by the Tory backbencher Nick Boles along with others and described it thus...
Read 8 tweets
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Ben Chu
@BenChu_
A no-deal Brexit could happen 'by accident', says Jeremy Hunt. Andy Grice in @Independent says otherwise, arguing Parliament would step in to prevent it...:
...a great deal in the Brexit negotiations hinges on who is right. If the EU side know that Hunt is making empty threats they will obviously ignore it and adopt a hard line....
....of course it's possible that Hunt's rhetoric is more for the consumption of europhobic Tory members than EU negotiators
Read 3 tweets
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Ben Chu
@BenChu_
The argument from @scmallaby here that Italy's growing debt-to-GDP ratio since 1999 is mainly due to profligate state spending and an absence of market discipline is flawed... washingtonpost.com/opinions/italy…
...first, here's the debt-to-GDP picture. Yes, as he says, up significantly in France and Italy. & big contrast with Germany, where its been falling since 2012....:
...but is Italy's debt ratio due to vast budget deficits in Italy, as he implies? Actually, Italy has had lower annual deficits than the rest of the G7 since 2000 (as has France)...:
Read 13 tweets

Related threads

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David Henig
@DavidHenigUK
Even by the standards of articles at Brexit Central this one defending the Department for International Trade is a horror show of snide remarks and basic errors 1/ brexitcentral.com/department-int…
Start with the snide, those doomsayers who are saying each agreement is only a small percentage of trade (which each one is) and the gate doesn't come down after no-deal (yes, but won't be negotiating new deals then?) 2/
Other countries are confused you see. Except that these sections are incredibly confused. We're replicating in case of no-deal, and yes other countries may say no because they think they have more leverage in the future. These sentences make no sense at all 3/
Read 13 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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David M. Herszenhorn
@herszenhorn
Amid reports that #UK PM @theresa_may hopes to renegotiate the "backstop" provision on the Northern Ireland border, let's recall that she already made clear what she wants in her letter to #EU leaders before disastrously losing the #Brexit Withdrawal Treaty ratification vote. 1/
"This could be mitigated by changes to the backstop itself," she wrote to @eucopresident & @JunckerEU "Proposals for a way in which the UK could choose to exit the backstop unilaterally were it ever to come into force, or for a hard time limit... 2/
on the duration of the usage of the backstop, have been raised and discussed in Parliament. We have also raised them previously in negotiations." So there are her proposals, i.e. the EU should basically just cave on backstop in face of House of Commons defeat. But but but ... 3/
Read 17 tweets
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Flick Ruby
@FlickRubicon
What has @wikileaks has taught and shown us about the negotiation of secret #trade​ ​agreements? A thread. Add information you've found to be in the public interest that whistleblowers have trusted to the #WikiLeaks archive. #WikiLeaksIsAPublisher #Assange #SubstanceOverSmea​r
ACTA, the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement", was ultimately rejected. ​T​he agreement was an attempt to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement. wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_…
WikiLeaks released a document during talks at the WTO in Geneva that showed how the EU used threats to "reprogram development aid" if developing countries do not agree to sign a new free trade agreement with the EU. wikileaks.org/wiki/EU_aid_de…
Read 10 tweets
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Adam Payne
@adampayne26
Liam Fox interview on Brexit coming shortly...
Exclusive: Liam Fox tells BI that extending Brexit talks would be "complete betrayal" and shouldn't be done even if there is no deal by March uk.businessinsider.com/liam-fox-inter…
Fox took aim at the European Commission, accusing it of putting "theological attachment" to treaties before the wellbeing of Europeans

He accused the EU of being vague: "They can't keep rejecting things without telling us exactly what it is they want" uk.businessinsider.com/liam-fox-inter…
Read 3 tweets
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Pete North
@PeteNorth303
1. A thread on #trade and aid.

One of the first tangible benefits of #Brexit I've seen is the emerging reform of @DFID_UK where it is becoming more of an arm of trade policy than a state owned humanitarian NGO. I would like that to go much further and rethink trade.
2. I do not think we should be wasting too much effort on free trade deals largely because they are of questionable value and encourage inefficient value chains. Any work on tariffs should really be reserved for multilateral activity.
3. Instead we need DfID as the spearhead of our trade policy. There is no reason why we cannot pursue humanitarian goals and enhance our trade while we are at it. For a start we can do a lot with medicines and pharmacy products.
Read 21 tweets

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