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David Henig Profile picture
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17 Jan, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Here's one for the self proclaimed free traders in the UK who denied a hard Brexit would mean a significant rise in trade barriers. How do you explain all the new charges and checks to exporters to the EU? amp.theguardian.com/politics/2021/…
Unfair of course. For those pressure groups and the UK government have simply redefined supporting "free trade" to mean sovereignty and raising trade barriers. The opposite of the normal definition.
So when do we get this column about those who claimed there wouldn't be trade barriers with the EU? I guess we won't as that would have to include the PM...
In case of doubt have very much enjoyed and supported the take down of covid sceptics. But if we're going to be looking closely at misleading columnists often in the same papers we could look beyond covid...

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More from @DavidHenigUK

David Henig Profile picture
18 Jan
1. I have in the past frequently suggested that sectors most protected by trade agreements in every country are those with the ability to dump produce outside a country's Parliament
2. This hasn't taken long
3. Happy to take my share of surplus product
UK government shock that free trade agreement do not equal free trade, are not always universally welcomed by their own supporters, and the anti-trade backlash (which of course included the Brexit vote) does include UK post-Brexit trade policy.
Waits for the "but they were voting for global Britain" reply. Sure, of course they were. Just the export-only version. Like supporters of free trade in many countries.
Read 5 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
18 Jan
Today's UK-EU trade deal reflection - what is rarely stated in discussions about the deal's shortcomings is that they reflect UK government policy choices - in particular that control of immigration and a US trade deal are a higher priority than an EU deal.
Thus, why was it not a UK government priority to secure for UK musicians the rights to tour the EU? Because that would probably have required a reciprocal right to be given to those in the EU, which we didn't want to give. Choice.
Meanwhile why did the UK government not seek or secure a reduction in food inspections for GB products going to the EU? Because that would probably have required fixing food regulations in a way that might have been an obstacle to a US trade deal.
Read 8 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
17 Jan
On musicians rights to tour in the UK. The other obvious thing to say is that this was evidently not a UK priority in negotiations.
Maybe we could finally learn that trade agreements in the abstract or even as a large number that can be claimed as a triumph are meaningless, it is the content that counts, and that content has to be specific to UK interests.
True, but it is very much a scale. On which a Free Trade Agreement is 'less' free trade than a Customs Union, Single Market, or both. Why so many countries join their neighbours in such arrangements.
Read 4 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
15 Jan
On one hand, strong relationships between officials and others on both sides. On the other, not sure Biden has that much respect for the UK or Brexit, and Johnson shows no instinct for realistic foreign policy. I reckon the first will still prove stronger than the second.
Reckon the UK foreign office will be hoping to minimise the PM's actual engagement with the new President, being very happy to be able to return to engaging serious folk in the new administration. Who in turn respect UK officials expertise.
As for the symbolic UK-US trade deal (it has pretty limited economic value, and as many difficulties as benefits, but significant political value for Brexit) I think it could happen, once the new administration work out their approach to trade deals, presuming the UK will sign.
Read 4 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
15 Jan
There is a sense of disbelief about the new trade problems between Great Britain and the EU / Northern Ireland. Which we need to lose. This is the new normal. And we face a difficult period of adjustment - immediate paperwork needs, and to longer term uncompetitiveness.
As we trade folk might have mentioned before, outside of the single market and the customs union of the EU, problems at borders are normal. Delays common. Great job of the Brexit supporters to find supposed experts claiming otherwise, but now back to reality...
Such delays at borders were in fact part of the origin of the single market, in the days when the Conservatives didn't see a contradiction between free markets and sovereignty. Such delays weren't really compatible with a supposed common market. So, the single market...
Read 11 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
14 Jan
The EU has heard such threats from Boris Johnson many times before, and that's the sound of laughter from Brussels at the gullibility of the UK media believing that this time he will not fold.
Remember the clauses of the Internal Market Bill breaking international law that were apparently needed to prevent border checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and how they were dropped because apparently we'd reached a deal with the EU to prevent these?
It isn't even ancient history, we are being asked to pretend that the government didn't reach a deal with the EU in December over Northern Ireland. A government utterly refusing to take responsibility aided by an opposition having taken a vow of silence. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Read 5 tweets

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