It's SLIDE WARS! Michel Barnier's team has created this new slide in response to David Frost's speech on Monday and the argument in the No 10 tweet below. It shows the value of trade to distance ratio of the EU's trade with the UK compared to countries it currently has FTAs with. 
EU officials are privately aggrieved at the No 10 tweet which turns Barnier's famous staircase slide against him. They point out the Level Playing Field is mentioned in both EU guidelines and the joint Political Declaration. The attack from Downing St is seen as 'below the belt'.
Whilst that is clearly the case, there may well be those on the UK side who argue the Level Playing Field as it is emerging in the draft EU mandate goes far, far beyond anything they envisaged that they were committing to. The two sides are moving in opposite directions apace.
A few people pointing out the US isn't on this chart, but of course that's because the EU doesn't have a trade deal with America. Although I'm not entirely sure where Ukraine (which has a DCFTA as the centre pillar of its Association Agreement with the EU) has got to...
The Commission has now published an accompanying statement for this slide. ‘Comparing the situation of the UK to other countries, such as Canada, simply does not work.’ ec.europa.eu/info/sites/inf…
