1. Does the new trade deal deliver for the UK and the EU automotive sectors? I and other colleagues have been working tirelessly over Christmas to answer this question – thanks @mattogg @Mulk_Lloyd!!. Here are my thoughts - warning, very long 🧵ahead! 2. First, a necessary clarification. Comparing the UK-EU FTA with the status quo is simply futile. Even the most ambitious FTA cannot – and it is not intended to – deliver the benefits of the EU Single Market and Customs Union.

1. It took me a while and it's still work in progress but...first impressions on the UK-Japan deal for UK automotive. If you don't bother with detail, the FTA broadly delivers on the sector's key priorities, with many positives and a few caveats...but better read the thread! 2. First: timing. Trade negotiations are complex stuff, even when the parties start from a text already negotiated by someone else. A couple years ago, it was a common belief in @tradegovuk that replicating a deal meant replacing “EU” with “UK”. They have come a long way.

1 – Well, difficult not to expand a bit on this topic after this endorsement. Sooo....rules of origin and electric vehicles, bear with me for a rather complex thread.

https://twitter.com/AnnaJerzewska/status/1194538200175403008

2 – Free trade agreements (FTAs) offer reduced or zero-tariff treatment to automotive goods complying with the deals’ rules of origin (RoO).

1 - Yes, we want to grow it! #UK #Automotive exports £1 billion engines to Turkey, twice as much as the entire North-American region and second only to the EU. British engines are assembled into passenger cars and CVs exported from Turkey to the UK and other European countries.

https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1168868721533902849

2 - In 2018, we imported more than 175,000 finished vehicles from Turkey, mainly cars and vans. In 2008, we were importing just over 65,000. Turkey ranked 5^ among the biggest export markets for UK cars.