Russia to sabotage UK's re-entry into the WTO

[BlasterBates]

Russia to sabotage UK's re-entry into the WTO on the same terms it already has

Look forward to the Smart Alec replies.

[Eirikur]

Makes sense (even though it comes from the Express)
After all Putin was an important factor behind Brexit as well

[darmstadt]

That's not 100% true, there are quite a few other countries looking to do the same thing...

[Whorty]

That's not 100% true, there are quite a few other countries looking to do the same thing...

And they're all unelected bullies. How dare they not give us what we want!!!! OUT NOW! OUT OF THE WTO ... that is the will of the people

[Old Greg]

Narnia and DPRK both manage perfectly well outside of the WTOSSR.

[Whorty]

From the Times ....

"Almost two dozen countries including Russia are attempting to prevent Britain from staying within the World Trade Organisation on terms similar to those it has enjoyed as a member of the European Union."

Well little Brexidiots, that there was another benefit of being in the EU

[Eirikur]

Joining the WTO was not the will of the people because it wasn't on the ballot paper

[chopper]

We don't need to join the WTO, we're already WTO members.

However, our WTO Schedules are delegated to the EU. When we leave, we'll need to publish our own schedules. At which point, anybody who objects to our schedules can complain to the WTO, and we'll end up in the WTO Court of Justice (Wouldn't it be funny if they renamed the WTO Dispute Resolution Gateway as the WTOCJ?) on the receiving end of their judgements.

It'd be difficult for Russia, Argentina or whoever to show harm to their industries if our WTO Schedules carry the same tariffs as in the EU, so that is just bluster. Where it becomes difficult is the quotas. Lets say the UK population is about 12% that of the EU. We could say that we set our quotas at 12% of EU levels (and the EU set their quotas at 88% of current levels). The problem comes if, say, Russia sells 60% of its snow to the UK and 40% to the rUK, then snow quotas would be out of balance and Russia could claim harm in the WTO.

Alas, the Gammons think that a) we're going to have JRM's mythical and entirely non-existant "World Trade Deal", b) We're going to be setting our tariffs to 0% (because they don't see why it is important to protect our domestic industries, and they don't see that if we remove tariffs as a source of government revenue then that will mean our taxes go up to cover the shortfall) and c) The WTO simply means everyone is allowed to trade with everyone freely. Oh, and they also think 'Gammon' is a racist slur. Pssst, it isn't.

None of this is true, of course. The Gammon brain cannot understand that we're not the British Empire and we're not going back to it, the world has moved on since 1973 and just because we survived before the EU, going back to how things were means giving up a lot of our lifestyles that we take for granted right now. What has the EU done for us? They're all about to find out the hard way.

[pscont]

That's not 100% true, there are quite a few other countries looking to do the same thing...

This.

Always wondered why some of my friends got naturalized british and got UK passports. Not for world travel, surely. Half the world hates the brits and the other half hates them a lot.

[chopper]

Joining the WTO was not the will of the people because it wasn't on the ballot paper

We're replacing the undemocratic EU with the WTO, don't you know? Looking forward to those elections where we get to vote for the Director General of the WTO (currently held by the Brazilian bloke, Roberto Azevêdo. My my, when the Gammons realise there is an unelected forriner in charge of the WTO...)

I've always been sure that the problem with the EU is because there is democracy, people complain about the lack of it. If there wasn't an European Parliament that we voted in, we probably wouldn't give it a second thought. If Juncker was called the Director General of the European Commission rather than the President, if the ECJ was the European Dispute Resolution Gateway instead, then we'd probably be fine with it all.