@DefraGovUK have declined to expand on Theresa Villiers's remarkable comments yesterday about imposing tariffs on sub-standard food imports. It's becoming increasingly clear that the Env Sec 'mis-spoke', to use the popular political euphemism... A short-ish thread 1/
@DefraGovUK are suggesting that 'what she meant' was that the UK could act post-Brexit to raise tariffs on some products which are not currently protected. Which is in itself not entirely true.... 2/
Tariffs cannot be increased beyond the levels which are 'bound' at the WTO, and the UK is planning to 'inherit' EU the EU's tariff schedules after Brexit. So it could only raise tariffs on products for which the applied tariffs were currently being set below the bound maximum 3/
It's also interesting to hear that the UK is envisaging the possibility of taking an even more protectionist line than "the protectionist EU". This rather contradicts the UK's self-image of a free-trader nation.... 4/
I suspect the government is hoping that this whole story will now quietly slip away into the background, pending the (probable) appointment of a new Defra Secretary next month. /end
