It is important to call out the PM and government's misleading remarks on Northern Ireland and Brexit, because international treaties do not spell out the exact nature of trade and need interpretation. So Northern Ireland today, but food standards or the NHS tomorrow 1/ thread
So, for example on GB-NI trade - legal text no duties payable except for goods at risk of going on to EU. Most likely operational meaning - all goods from GB to NI will face duties which may be rebated if goods consumed in N Ireland 2/ 
On NI-GB trade, a classic "nothing in this protocol shall" - on the other hand something outside the protocol... and ask yourself if paragraph 2, on facilitating the trade between NI and GB, would be needed if there was no question of checks... 3/
Let's look at a trade agreement. You won't find the words 'chlorinated chicken'. But for example in CPTPP we find a reference to equivalence (and there's one further down on science based measures). The EU uses slightly different language... 4/
And similarly no trade agreement will say explicitly the NHS is up for sale, or we all have to eat worms. But they could have impacts on the NHS. That's why it is normal for international treaties to receive independent scrutiny - to explain what they mean 5/
The government is steadfastly refusing to be open to any kind of independent scrutiny on current or future trade agreements. That's the real problem we face. Until this happens, bogus claims on what a treaty means are harder to disprove. Maybe that's the aim 6/
Final point - modern trade treaties cover huge ranges of topics, from IP to NHS, immigration to subsidies. Understanding them is a challenge even for experts. It's understandable the PM doesn't understand his own treaty - but he has the power to do something about that 7/ end
PS worryingly it appears the BBC have reported the PM's claims of no checks on NI / GB trade as fact not rather questionable.
