Broad terms of the agreement were finalized between Boris Johnson and Australian PM Scott Morrison at a dinner on Monday night 2/
Key question is the detail for farmers - we're expecting features like long transitions on cutting tariffs, to give British farmers chance to adjust to cheaper imports 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Context - Australia is the U.K.'s 20th-largest trading partner globally, making up 1.2% of Britain's total trade in 2020. (Trade with the EU made up about 50%) 4/
And remember, the government's own scoping assessment of a deal with Australia predicted it would boost the size of Britain's economy by 0.02% over 15 years 5/ gov.uk/government/pub…
Ultimately, this is the chart that the British government needs to prove wrong - can a succession of trade deals with distant countries where tariffs are largely low anyway justify erecting significant trade barriers with your biggest and closest market? 6/
It's now an empirical exercise - let's see what happens to the trade flows. And my colleagues @lizzzburden and @pogkas have made a sterling start with this trade tracker ends/ bloomberg.com/graphics/uk-tr…
U.K. government says the agreement in principle will be published in the coming days.
Key line for farmers: `British farmers will be protected by a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years, using tariff rate quotas and other safeguards'
Now waiting for NFU reaction...
`Australian producers and farmers will receive a significant boost by getting greater access to the UK market' - the Aus govt verdict on trade deal 9/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Details of changes for farmers have been published by the Australians here -- effectively a 15-year transition period for tariffs on beef and sheep meat trademinister.gov.au/minister/dan-t…
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New: The U.K. is hiring for a director of a ‘Brexit Opportunities’ unit which will sit in the Cabinet Office, as Johnson seeks upsides outside the EU 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The desired candidate will have “experience in economics, regulation or business’’ and will create a “cross-government strategy for regulatory change’’, the government said in a statement 2/
A separate taskforce including Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers has also published a report on post-Brexit opportunities - they urge simplifying rules and being more ‘flexible’ and ‘agile’ when regulating in future 3/
And the situation wasn't resolved. UK businesses can't sell raw sausages to the EU since Brexit. But Northern Ireland got a 6-month grace period.. 2/ bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
Which is due to expire on June 30. (Remember, NI is treated as if in the EU's single market.) And now the UK is considering breaking the Brexit deal again by unilaterally extending the grace period, according to the Telegraph 3/ telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
New: Lord Frost calls for `common-sense' and an end to EU `legal purism' over the NI protocol, ahead of a crunch meeting this week... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Frost has written an op-ed for the FT, which includes a surprisingly chunky section of concession about the negative impact Brexit has had on Northern Ireland 2/ ft.com/content/eb35a1…
What does the UK want? `Pragmatic solutions', 'flexibility' from the EU side. In Brussels, this is seen as the UK not wanting to be held to the letter of the international treaty they signed when they left the EU.. 3/
Snuck in Jersey Royals, Jersey cows, Jerriais, the Nazi occupation, the 1781 Battle of Jersey, the capture of the Minquiers but alas no Bergerac 🇯🇪 2/
Bottom line is Jersey feels caught in a Brexit storm not of its own creating. And a dispute between two NATO allies escalated faster than expected, with little political incentive for either the U.K. or France to back down 3/