Policy & Advocacy | Campaigns & Comms | occasional articles & 📺 commentary on politics, economy & trade | Very liberal Conservative | 中国通 | 🔃/💙 ≠ endorsement
Oct 24, 2021 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
People commenting on the Environment Bill and the "watering down" of amendment 45 may wish to read the actual texts bills.parliament.uk/bills/2593/pub…
Or this short explainer thread 👇
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This bill tightens up a lot of environmental regulation, incl. the Water Industry Act 1991 (Sewage Services).
It may sound "geeky", but this in fact the only genuinely contentious issue over what is the very limited role of the ECJ in the Northern Ireland Protocol 1/
Contrary to claims elsewhere, Northern Ireland is not in the EU Single Market, but only in its Single Market for goods. This means trade in goods is covered by its regulatory regime for which the ECJ is the ultimate arbitrator
2/
Oct 23, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This interview by @haynesdeborah of former spy Christopher Steele is generating lots of excitement, but the most important question is being overlooked:
"Going back to absolutely basic principles here: What were the Russians trying to achieve..." 1/
As the bulk of the interview concerns Trump and then Brexit, people opposed to either (or both) are jumping to conclusions that reinforce their existing views.
But was this really the primary goal of what the Russians were trying to achieve?
2/
Feb 13, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Interesting claim by @Lorand_Bartels that the UK may have "a good case" against the EU at the WTO if it *continues* to deny long-term equivalence recognition for financial services. 1/ telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…
It is true that "selective treatment of one state for political reasons breaches the non-discrimination principle of the WTO" and this applies to services as Article VII of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) makes clear in paragraph 3. 2/
Jan 5, 2021 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
This is not about the EU, but about your claims that gravity matters less for services and my question over what type of services the UK can hope to export to Asia. As much as I wish the latter were true, I have to disagree and shed some light on the data you use.
(Thread) 1/
Starting with the stats, a caveat. "Non-EU" includes Norway and Switzerland. If we look at the continent as a whole, service exports to Europe are over 50%. Of the rest, about half go to the USA and the rest goes to the "rest of world" - incl. Asia, but let's start with USA. 2/
Jan 4, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This story is being interpreted a consequence of Brexit, but it's really a consequence of new VAT rules on imports to the UK from last year. The only Brexit link is that EU trade is no longer exempt from these rules as the UK has left the Single Market 1/5 bbc.com/news/business-…
The @BBCNews article correctly explains this:
"VAT is now being collected at the point of sale rather than at the point of importation, a change that HMRC says will ensure that goods from EU and non-EU countries are treated in the same way."
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Sep 13, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Free market fantasist often claim that laws and regulations stand in the way of business, but the example in this story indicate the opposite.
When men of power are not constrained by the rule of law, the costs of doing business can quickly rise to unsustainable levels. 1/
While the example is of a factory in Nigeria, I have seen many similar cases in Asian countries. Investors discover the need to pay spurious "fees" on services, traders unable to clear their goods without paying exorbitant bribes... many sad tales often ending in bankruptcy.
2/
Jan 15, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Good balanced report by @JoeCoshan on the announced closure of car parts factory Antolin Interiors in Sittingbourne.
The point about an "unfavourable geographical location" has interesting implications for post-Brexit Kent as a whole.
(THREAD)
1) kentonline.co.uk/sittingbourne/…
Brexit is likely to make the UK more "insular" in an economic sense because business likes to be close to its suppliers and markets.
Outside the Single Market, we can therefore expect a relocation of the UK's centre of economic activity towards its geographical centre.
2)
Jul 5, 2019 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Let's be clear, a #NoDealBrexit is NOT a #CleanBreak. It's a #DirtyBreak that resets the clock on negotiations + will cause chaos as we immediately have to comply with WTO rules, lose the exemptions from the MFN clause which we currently enjoy. #WTOrulesNotOK
2) WTO rules basically mean giving every other WTO member the same level of access to your market, "Most-Favourite-Nation" status.
The MFN clause forbids countries from offering preferential trade terms to another country unless these terms are offered to all other members.
Mar 10, 2018 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
1) Why am I, a remainer from Kent, putting all my energy into the #GreatNorthernMarch, rather than just getting on with activities in my own region?
It's because we need to mobilise the North to win this fight against Brexit. The north is where Brexit can and will be stopped.
2) If it were just about passion, I’d be going to Maidenhead on 24 March – to shout at Theresa May and wave a flag. But passion itself is going to get us nowhere. We need strategy to succeed. And the North is the place where we can best turn the tide.
