Time to get King Charlie involved. We want preferential treatment, God damn it.
> He said: “It is unacceptable that British cheese exporters are facing unfair price hikes because the government is distracted by its own endless chaos and many will be wondering why on Earth ministers agreed these cliff edges in the UK-Canada trade agreement in the first place.
Because they didn’t have the leverage to change Canada’s position? Trade agreements are give and take, but in the UK’s place there was definitely a political need (and possibly an economic one) to have these agreements in place after Brexit.
> “This is just the latest in a series of missteps on trade. The government have given away far too much for far too little in trade negotiations, have axed support to businesses to capitalise on trade deals and now seem unable to stop new tariffs hitting top British exporters.”
This was unavoidable. Brexit seriously damaged the UK’s negotiation position simply by introducing the urgent need for new trade agreements. Note that the UK’s position was and is in flux: it was either still negotiating a trade deal with the EU or attempting to break the Withdrawal Agreement which would then collapse the trade agreement it had with the EU. Any country bargaining with the UK would have tried to insulate themselves by limiting the scope or adding additional safeguards.
To be clear: the UK government has made a dog’s breakfast out of this, but the problem is not that it’s incapable of negotiating trade agreements, but rather that the UK’s political choices (which its current government championed and implemented) has put it in an impossible position. They promised better trade agreements while advocating choices that would make it impossible to negotiate those, but then that was always obvious. It’s not the incompetence; it’s the lies, the outright denial of reality, as well as the willingness to believe in them.
Damn look at all these frictionless trade deals were making. Thanks leave voters!
Leave voters will still tell you with a straight face Breciy was a good idea.
5 comments
Sounds like a perfect opportunity to introduce [Imperial Preference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Preference).
Time to get King Charlie involved. We want preferential treatment, God damn it.
> He said: “It is unacceptable that British cheese exporters are facing unfair price hikes because the government is distracted by its own endless chaos and many will be wondering why on Earth ministers agreed these cliff edges in the UK-Canada trade agreement in the first place.
Because they didn’t have the leverage to change Canada’s position? Trade agreements are give and take, but in the UK’s place there was definitely a political need (and possibly an economic one) to have these agreements in place after Brexit.
> “This is just the latest in a series of missteps on trade. The government have given away far too much for far too little in trade negotiations, have axed support to businesses to capitalise on trade deals and now seem unable to stop new tariffs hitting top British exporters.”
This was unavoidable. Brexit seriously damaged the UK’s negotiation position simply by introducing the urgent need for new trade agreements. Note that the UK’s position was and is in flux: it was either still negotiating a trade deal with the EU or attempting to break the Withdrawal Agreement which would then collapse the trade agreement it had with the EU. Any country bargaining with the UK would have tried to insulate themselves by limiting the scope or adding additional safeguards.
To be clear: the UK government has made a dog’s breakfast out of this, but the problem is not that it’s incapable of negotiating trade agreements, but rather that the UK’s political choices (which its current government championed and implemented) has put it in an impossible position. They promised better trade agreements while advocating choices that would make it impossible to negotiate those, but then that was always obvious. It’s not the incompetence; it’s the lies, the outright denial of reality, as well as the willingness to believe in them.
Damn look at all these frictionless trade deals were making. Thanks leave voters!
Leave voters will still tell you with a straight face Breciy was a good idea.