Thread by @CoppetainPU

A number of people have questioned this 👇🏽

The argument goes: Since a pro-Brexit view is the UK can fare just as well under WTO rules as it can as an EU member, it’s valid to compare the two.

But trying to understand the two through the lens of Brexit is misleading.

Why?

1/11

https://twitter.com/CoppetainPU/status/1226543433042579456

1. It *is* valid to compare the *impacts* of operating under WTO rules *alone*, with the *impact* of EU membership or any other UK-EU relationship.

But it is misleading to compare the two as organisations.

2/11

ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-the-lon…

Since the UK, EU and EU member states are all WTO members, WTO rules *always* apply to all of them, non matter what the UK-EU relationship is, or even if there is no trade relationship.

Any UK-EU relationship is built on top of WTO rules.

3/11

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2019/06/17/wto…

2. The false comparison leads to false questions like: “The EU has an elected parliament. Where are our elected representatives in the WTO to scrutinise WTO rules?”

The simple answer: For the UK they are in the House of Commons.

4/11

Why the House of Commons?

Because WTO “rules” are really *agreements* negotiated by governments—*only* by those governments

Once agreed, there’s nothing to force governments to write them into their laws, only possible retaliation by other members

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/wto…

5/11
The EU lost the “beef hormone” case and continued to be in violation for several years even after the US imposed sanctions. Eventually, a negotiated solution was found, involving additional market access, but the ban on “hormone beef” remains even though it breaks WTO …"" src="/images/1px.png" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQaVfkXW4AA3k-c.png">

But governments do generally adapt their laws to meet WTO obligations. It is voluntary, never automatic.

In the UK, those laws are scrutinised by the House of Commons.

Here’s why governments voluntarily comply with their WTO obligations: tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/wto…

6/11

3. Also a false comparison: leaving the EU means replacing the European Court of Justice (ECJ/CJEU) with WTO dispute settlement.

(a) As a WTO member, the UK is *always* subject to WTO dispute settlement/Appellate Body.

Here’s a case the UK lost.

7/11

uktradeforum.net/2020/01/24/bbc…

(b) Lawyers tell us that under EU treaties, its member states accept the supremacy of EU law (in some areas) and rulings of the ECJ.

There is no legal equivalent in WTO agreements. Members simply commit to comply. Nothing can force them to do so.

8/11

ukandeu.ac.uk/fact-figures/d…

3. The WTO is more or less just a meeting place.

The EU is much more. It has a Commission with executive powers, a budget that is deeply involved in economic and other activities and a legislature.

The WTO has *none* of those.

9/11

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2018/08/17/wha…

This is an organisation chart of the European Union

10/11

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituti…

(Chart by 111Alleskönner - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cu…)

And this is an organisation chart of the World Trade Organisation. It consists entirely of meetings of the membership.

The EU and WTO charts are incomparable.

11/11

tradebetablog.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/wto-or…