On trade agreements

Thanks to @37paday

1/ Brexit and the great free trade agreement farce

2/ Global @liamfox bores on about all the great FTAs we can sign post Brexit even though the economic evidence shows that the loss from leaving the Eu and replacing all the existing FTAs will not leave us better off

3/ Indeed the only way the Brexiters think they will be able to achieve quick trade deals is either by letting in chlorinated chicken into the country (fine if you are a desperate Fox I suppose) or by unilaterally lowering our tariffs which then harms our manufacturing

4/ But then no one really seems to want to sign trade deals with the UK until third countries know what deal the UK agrees long term with the EU

5/ Which is why the likes of @LiamFox are travelling round the 🌎🌍🌏 achieving nothing but their bucket list of places to go

6/ Indee so inept is the Brexiters handling of Brexit and all the lovely trade deals that @LiamFox at one point wanted us to join a Pacific trade block - a quirk of geography rendered the idea bad

7/ And the real panic now at @DExEUgov and @tradegovuk is all the lovely deals we benefit from via the EU could soon no longer apply

8/ And then when certain ministers have only recently learned what “transshipment” actually means you know the UK really is in trouble

9/ So that is why the UK has asked now asked the EU to treat the UK as a member of the EU during transition so the Uk can carry on with the EUs FTAs. Imagine leaving and then arguing leaving means remaining

10/ And all @GregHands is really doing is going round third countries who have EU deals asking their Parliaments to ratify that the UK can still benefit from the EU deals

11/ Better still all @GregHands is doing is asking those countries to ratify that position for the transitional period which makes you wonder what he hopes will be in place by the end of the transition given the Cabinet can’t agree on a customs union/ arrangement/ Max fuck up

12/ No doubt we will ask those deals to be rolled over again. But even if they are not, look at how much goodwill we are exhausting to standstill and how little control we have

13/ But it gets better. There is one country that is outside the EU that does a lot of fishing trade. They presented a very short FTA deal to the UK - because it was just about fish. Should be the second “easiest deal in history” (h/t @LiamFox) after the EU one right?

14/ Well no. It would seem that @GregHands has the view that the UK is underresourced. Maybe he was being polite but saying you don’t have the resources is not a great message

15/ So not only do the Brexiters not know what type of FTAs they want (and the ones they could get the public don’t want - 🐔🐔🐔), they want to rollover the current ones and don’t have the resources to agree new ones

16/ Meanwhile @dexeu and @tradegovuk are fucking about at precisely the time the rest of the global economy is booming

17/ Think of all the money the NHS could have got just off that economic boom. Maybe @liamfox or @gregh could tell me or you how much they personally think we should be poorer by before they accept they are a pair of headless 🐔chasing 🦄 at the taxpayers’ expense.

18/ And if that does not worry you, then today’s news that civil servants jobs that exist now to help with trade will be cut at a time when we are negotiating trade deals that will make us poorer is the icing on the cherry cake