Former FT chief EEC correspondent, world trade editor and Asia commentator. Now senior fellow at Ecipe and associate at LSE IDEAS. Co-founder, UK Trade Forum.
Oct 15, 2019 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
@BrexitCentral@MPIainDS 1. Oh dear, it is Mr Duncan Smith who needs a primer in trade policy. His amateurish effort is deeply flawed.
a) It implicitly assumes that tariffs are the main barriers to trade. This is 19th century thinking. Regulatory obstacles are far more important nowadays and they are
@BrexitCentral@MPIainDS 2. stubborn and difficult to remove. The US has been unable even internally to remove many states' Buy Local procurement laws, their restrictions on construction and professional services, the Jones Act etc. What chance will little UK have of getting it to do so?
Aug 28, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is the kind of thinking that turned foreign aid budgets into slush funds for producer interests in donor countries, until their governments agreed to untie aid, and led to the Pergau dam scandal. Has May learned nothing from history? bit.ly/2PbxhWO
Short thread 1. What exactly is May up to here? The obvious way to make aid "unashamedly benefit British private firms" would be to revert to the practice of "tying" it to the award of contracts and orders by the countries receiving aid. But that was made illegal by the UK
Jun 22, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Thread @JLongworthLML John Longworth of Leave Means Leave was on BBC WATO saying that most trade in the world is done on basis of "WTO rules" and that most countries trade with the EU on that basis. Every part of that statement is wrong and betrays breathtaking ignorance.
2/ The UK already trades on "WTO rules", as does every other WTO member, and always has done. It's a requirement of WTO membership. What Longworth seems to mean is "WTO terms", which is quite different: these are the basic MFN commitments made by WTO members.
Jun 10, 2018 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Another thread. Thanks for all who retweeted/responded to the earlier one. Now some thoughts specifically about the UK’s positioning and prospects on negotiating on trade with the EU, with the 40-odd countries with which it has trade agreements and with others such as the US.
2. First, I commend the UK Trade Forum blog by David Henig, until recently a Department for International Trade official on how woefully unprepared the government seems to be for trade negotiations uktradeforum.net/2018/05/14/wha…
Jun 9, 2018 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Thread. I have never negotiated an international agreement. However, I dedicated a decade of my life to watching at close quarters some of the world’s smartest and most effective trade negotiators in action. Here are some lessons I learned.
1. Master every aspect of your brief and ensure you understand fully what you are dealing with down to the finest technical detail.
