EU Japan Trade Agreement

**meridian** · 17 July 2018, 22:30

On a positive note, who led the EU’s global trade strategy, culminating in this agreement?

Brits.

https://twitter.com/simonfraser00/st...389533696?s=21

In Brussels in 2006 a small British-led team working for Peter Mandelson produced a new EU trade strategy. We called it “Global Europe”. It has been a cornerstone of EU trade liberalisation ever since. #EUJapan #Brexit #givingupcontrol

**darmstadt** · 18 July 2018, 06:01

An expert speaks, although that wouldn't count for the "we don't need no damn experts" crowd:

So here's the situation; I suggest that Michael Gove and hard core Brexiteers don't read on because I'm speaking from the perspective of a bit of an expert here. I spent a decade living and working in a dozen different countries as part of an international trade negotiating team working on billions of dollars of trade inside and outside of the EU and appeared as an expert witness on behalf of the Hong Kong SAR Government in an international arbitration case.

The Chequers Accord was dead before it was written and the Cabinet should have known that after being told for 2 long years that it is illegal to cherry pick the Four Pillars of the European Union. The very foundation of the four freedoms of the EU, freedom of movement of goods, capital, people and services are indivisible.

IF the EU decided that it was going to allow the United Kingdom to split these freedoms by permitting cherry picking for goods but not services then they would have to make these same allowances for 50 plus other countries too... WTO RULES state that you cannot provide a better deal for one nation that you do for others. In order for the EU to accept the Chequers Accord they'd be in breach of their own international Treaties. I suggest that this is a highly unlikely scenario as they'd likely have to start re-negotiating the Canada-EU deal and the Japan-EU deal amongst others.

Another key WTO rule is that if you want to trade favourably then a country must check, measure and control goods coming in and going out of the country. All 164 members of the WTO have agreed this so that they can ensure the right tariffs and quota are being applied. However, the Sovereign UK Parliaments EU Withdrawal Act that recently received Royal Assent by Her Majesty the Queen specifically states in Section 10 that it would be illegal for a UK Government to do anything that creates a hard border on the island of Ireland or damage the Good Friday Agreement. This means that if (when?) We crash out of the EU with no deal then we would be subject to the highest possible external tariff regime for every single country in the WTO. And it would also be impossible for the UK to negotiate Free Trade deals to mitigate these extortionate tariffs. This would devastate UK exporters. Completely.

So where are we? With 6 weeks of negotiations left before the conclusion of the Article 50 talks, the only proposal from the UK Government is to ask the EU to break it's international Treaties and Agreements or we leave on the absolute worst possible terms for the UK. A situation you couldn't even think about doing even in a nightmare.

Or.... alternatively.... we could remain in the EU where we currently trade all around the world, make our own laws in Westminster while also heavily influencing the laws of the largest trade bloc on the planet, control our standards and quality, while also not bringing the country to a standstill.

Did you know that between 1990 and 2016 the UK economy grew by 68%? That's faster than the G7! It's already been damaged since the referendum to one of the worst on our continent... it's not too late.

**darmstadt** · 18 July 2018, 06:41

Free and frictionless trade between the EU and the UK: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...-a8452091.html

EU Japan Trade Agreement