I'm VERY Team @TradeGovUK on this one.
First, rolling over an EU FTA may not be exactly as hard as negotiating a fresh deal, but it's still an achievement and Whitehall rando anons who have never been in a negotiating room should probably shut the fuck up about how easy it is.
First, rolling over an EU FTA may not be exactly as hard as negotiating a fresh deal, but it's still an achievement and Whitehall rando anons who have never been in a negotiating room should probably shut the fuck up about how easy it is.
https://twitter.com/SoumayaKeynes/status/1437714554637651968
Second, DIT does a lot of stuff other than negotiating free trade agreements and Whitehall officials of all people should know better than reducing a department to the one part of its work that makes headlines.
Third, the fact that the UK has in many cases (though not always) managed to secure for the UK deals nearly identical to those negotiated by the European Union, a bloc many times its economic weight, is worthy of praise, not derision.
Fourth, to the extent that the United Kingdom has at times seemingly left some value on the table in FTA negotiations or pushed off more difficult conversations, that was very clearly a Ministerial level decision and not the fault of negotiators.
Fifth, the only trade negotiations not handled by DIT are the WA and TCA.
How confident is the leaking official that it's DIT that comes out looking bad from that comparison?
/rant
How confident is the leaking official that it's DIT that comes out looking bad from that comparison?
/rant
Bonus sixth, the civil service gets enough crap it can't fire back on from ministers, journalists and pundits without also anonymously shitting on one another in Politico.
Super Bonus seventh, while it's legitimate to eye roll at some of the over-the-top messaging coming out about the rollovers, the appropriate person to harangue for that is the Minister that's demanding it, not the officials executing.
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