The Uk has now rolled over the EU deals with other countries as promised in the referendum. The draft Australian Free Trade Agreement could be the first of the new UK negotiated deals, which will go much further than the EU went in opening up opportunities for more trade and business activity. The Australian one will go some way to restore the losses we experienced with Australia thanks to EU protectionism against them. Australia is a key ally and partner, a fellow member of the 5 Eyes Group and a willing collaborator. For example, Australia is buying the rights and support to build 9 Type 26 UK designed frigates.
The Agreement will sweep away tariffs and quotas, and open up services. It will provide great opportunities for the UK dairy industry to sell more UK cheeses, the whisky industry to sell more drink and the car industry to sell more vehicles. UK consumers will have access to some great Australian products at cheaper prices, with a likely rise in interest in Australian wines as one of the consumer wins.
Some now say we need to offer protection to our beef and sheep meat sectors through tariff quotas to limit the amount of product Australia can sell us at better prices. To argue in this way is to seek to wreck the agreement. Australia has rightly not signed Free Trade Agreements with any country whilst accepting tariff rate quotas. The people who think the UK needs this protection from food produced on the other side of the world did not of course offer any such protection from EU food products, where we have tariff and quota free food trade and plenty of EU imports. It is difficult to believe our beef and sheep meat sectors will lose out to Australia given the distances involved and the relative costs. Australia has high standards of animal welfare and husbandry. UK beef and sheep meat are quality products with plenty of scope for us to export more and to sell more at home.
We owe it to ourselves and to Australia to do this deal. When we joined the EEC we turned our backs on Australia and other Commonwealth allies, placing heavy barriers in the way of their exports to us to give a big advantage to European product. Australia is a willing friend keen to promote our joint interests by freer trade. Doing a deal with Australia also gets us closer and sooner to a deal with CPTPP, the Pacific partnership countries. That is another large prize, a free trade deal with the fastest growing part of the world.
May 19, 2021
Indeed and the freer the better.
May 19, 2021
George Eustice and Michael Gove are reported to be against this agreement so it is surely the right thing to do. Restore the arrangement we used to have for free movement of workers for perhaps a couple of years too between the two countries.
May 19, 2021
It is unbelievable that Brexit supporting Conservative MPs like Theresa Villiers and reportedly even these ministers can be against a full FTA with Australia. FTAs without political unions were and are one of the key objectives of Brexit. Villiers et al should not have supported Brexit if they really are against them. The environmental scare mongering from the NFU and others is absurd and should be ignored. Let consumers choose. If U.K. farmers really canât compete and we see a public benefit in keeping them in meat production then letâs just pay them a direct subsidy. We should absolutely not restrict the access of U.K. consumers to the best possible goods and services at world market prices.
May 19, 2021
As Milton Friedman put it:- In time of war, we blockade our enemies in order to prevent them from getting goods from us. In time of peace, we do to ourselves by tariffs what we do to our enemy in time of war… Protectionism is enacted to benefit a small group at the expense of a large group. Free trade is a way of benefiting a large group at the expense of a small group. But politically the small group always speaks with a bigger voice.
It see that Britainâs inflation rate doubled in April, consumer prices rose 1.5% from a year earlier last month after a 0.7% gain in March. So what in effect will forcing people to buy ÂŁ30K electric cars and ÂŁ30,000 heat pump systems do in effect for inflation (when if properly measured)? Still the government talk of “zero emission” cars. There is no such thing as a “zero emission” car and there is no such thing as “zero emission” electricity to charge them. Almost all electric cars will cause more C02 and other emissions than continuing to run your old petrol/diesel one (after construction energy etc. is all considered). They merely shift the emissions elsewhere they are “emission elsewhere” cars and generally actually increase emissions overall.
May 19, 2021
Then we have the inflationary QE and the hugely inflationary intermittent, very expensive and largely pointless unreliables energy agenda.
May 19, 2021
The Public Accounts Committee has said electric cars are too expensive, charge infrastructure poor and suggested the Government faces a âhuge challengeâ in reaching its goal of phasing out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and hybrid models by 2035, with low emission vehicles currently accounting for just 11 per cent of sales.
Indeed but what they should have said is the cars are not zero emission, save trivial or generally no net C02 and the whole government driven agenda is idiotic damaging living standards and the economy and should be abandoned now. When the technology works and is cost effective and practical fine people will buy it. Doubtless almost no one on the committee know about energy, engineering, physics or energy economics.
May 19, 2021
Indeed. Exporting our manufacturing industry and carbon footprint may give the politicos a warm feel. The rest of us think they’re…..nut nuts.
May 19, 2021
Lifelogic, Very well said. I would add my usual observation that the government is not planning extra electricity generation capacity (see BEIS emissions reports) to cope with the electrically heated homes, and the battery powered cars it is promising us.
May 20, 2021
Surely the CO2 levels made by the products we import must be added to our total. Is this not going to be done? Of course deception by all govts. is the name of the game.
May 24, 2021
Do yuo want to make any comments on food security?
May 19, 2021
Have you any idea of how far Australia is from the UK – it takes 40 days for a ship to sail versus two hours Dover to Calais – so just consider the costs and who is going to pay –
May 19, 2021
Lots seem to get here from India and China.
I’m currently really enjoying a lovely wine from Chile, Bitterend
May 20, 2021
Light goods will be flown and for some heavy bulk goods iron ore, steel, lumber, coal… then the shipping delays do not matter too much.
May 20, 2021
Shipments from China involve a similar distance and yet costs are very low.
A two hour trip across the channel is meaningless in comparison if the continentals won’t buy your product.
May 20, 2021
Who is going to pay? The Aussies must know the costs – are they not saying? Nobody has asked? Oh yes, govt. keeping quiet.
Has no one here got friends in Oz to ask how their meat is? Please ask.
May 20, 2021
Didn’t British farmers get a direct subsidy when we were in the EU?
May 19, 2021
Yeah, send us more Sheilas, Kylie did us a lot of good.
May 19, 2021
Liz Truss’ idea of success is copying what we already had before combined with the ability to sell a bit more cheese to a nation of lactose-intolerants.
Maybe UK farmers are looking what this government has done to UK fishing with its negotiating ability and are perhaps not entirely confident in the likely outcome.
May 19, 2021
Peter, I would like Liz Truss or someone from her department to answer your statement. I read that “Cheese sales in the UK soared last year, with retail data showing a 15 percent increase in volume and 17 percent in value. ” farming UK. When I looked to see what the impact was since the new year “Lockdown has seen cheese become massive in grocery, racking up more than ÂŁ830m of sales in just 12 weeks.” The Grocer. “UK cheesemakers have been met with spiralling demand over the past five years from emerging markets across Asia, according to the latest HMRC data.” Gov.uk We’ve got national cheese day coming up, didn’t even know it was a thing.
I buy a lot of EU products and vehicles I think we should remain on friendly terms without barriers. I agree with you the negotiations on behalf of UK fishing does seem to be a poor one-sided deal and I’d love to know more.
May 19, 2021
Peter P, No, Liz Truss has not copied what we had before. Not only do we not have to pay the EU ÂŁbns in cash for these deals, we do not have to give away our sovereignty to the EU to get them, either.
May 19, 2021
Yes, but what really sticks in Remoaners’ gills is that we were told that roll overs such as you mention would not be possible, would take years etc etc. Got that a bit wrong didn’t they? Fishing was of course a sell out. Apparently France on its own has access to more fishing grounds than the UK but still want to plunder ours as they have fished out their own and will do ours in the next few years. Friends like these……
May 19, 2021
Why?
Anyone qualified and needed will be able to come orgo on a visa.
May 19, 2021
Gove is an Establishment viper along with MANY others.
May 24, 2021
Australia has flatly refused free movement.
May 19, 2021
I like John’s resort to simple imperatives in his heading.
It sits well with those ads that we used to see in the 1950s and 1960s, such as “Eat more fruit”, and of course “Vote Conservative”.
May 19, 2021
Fruit and fruit smoothies are stuffed full of sugar – they now have “eat less sugar” and even Osborne’s sugar tax. They might make their minds up perhaps?
Eat a balanced diet and if you are overweight eat half measures until you are not overweight. This surely should be the sensible message.
May 19, 2021
I tend to stick to fish, meat, seafood, eggs and surface (not root) vegetables and salads myself which seems to work well for me. Though I do rather like my Prunes in Armagnac pudding with cream occasionally.
May 19, 2021
Lifelogic
In reply to your previous posts with no reply tab.
What on earth do the disciples of the new religion think they are playing at? For years they have allowed renewable wind turbine developments to dig up and destroy thousands of acres of peat bogs to get their turbine bases and support networks into place and all the time ignoring the cries of the experts on real cause and effect of their actions.
We now have arrived at the ludicrous decision for the taxpayer to pay for more peat bogs and forestry as they are disappearing. You cannot make this up. The costs of such an enterprise should be handed over directly to the wind farm developers and their shareholders.
May 20, 2021
Who is going to pay? The Aussies must know the costs – are they not saying? Nobody has asked? Oh yes, govt. keeping quiet.
Has no one here got friends in Oz to ask how their meat is? Please ask.
May 21, 2021
Dennis – and Wrinkle’s post above which does not have a reply tab,
Aussie meat is world class and the animals are humanely treated from birth to abattoir. Cost of meat here is so much less than in the UK. Prime Beef Eye Fillet available from Aldi at around ÂŁ15 per kilo. Boneless Pork Leg Roast at ÂŁ5 per kilo, Lamb Leg at ÂŁ7 per kilo, Fresh Chickens at ÂŁ2.25 per kilo. Transport costs would no doubt push prices up a bit, but I can guarantee it will be better than the old EU stuff which kept this quality meat out.
I am sorry that I missed this post yesterday from Sir John, but await details of the full trade deal, hoping it includes a restoration of frozen state pensions to the appropriate level in line with the agreement for UK pensioners who continue to reside in the EU. Any other arrangement cannot be morally justified.
May 20, 2021
How many food items in any shop/supermarket can you find that does not contain sugar? Breakfast cereals are the worst. This sugar content should be banned and if consumers want some sweetening in their food I am sure they have sugar at home so can be added to their taste.
The advice to eat less sugar is defeated by food manufacturers.
May 19, 2021
so where do you stand on the issue? Colours to the mast Martin. Red doesn’t apply here, are you in favour or hiding behind the curtains of indecision?
May 19, 2021
Pointless intervention, just to have something, however moronic, to type. Why not wait until you have something worthwhile to contribute, not just the usual insults and cod legal opinions?
May 19, 2021
They are all as pertinent now as they ever were long ago.
Infact there is a very compelling argument that much manufactured food is the cause of obesity and much that follows on from it. Eat more fruit is no bad instruction.
May 19, 2021
âEat more fruitâ, and ….âVote Conservativeâ.
I generally try to Martin but thanks for the advice! đ
May 19, 2021
I remember that most effective slogan from the late ’70s:
Labour isn’t working
May 19, 2021
Indeed but Boris is now also a Socialist, lockdown enthusiast, tax borrow and waste and pusher of net zero carbon lunacy and endless red tape. As were Major, Cameron and May. Can we have the old Boris back please Carrie?
So the now Socialist Conservatives are not working either.
May 19, 2021
Boris is worst than a socialist heâs a Blairite
May 19, 2021
The only one I know that will go into the garden wearing a collar and tie to dig it up – The Englishman
May 19, 2021
I just remember the Goons singing a song ‘eat more fruit’ with raspberry blows in the chorus….. fingers crossed no one will put a spanner in the works with Australia!
May 19, 2021
Martin, It would be advisable to look beyond the heading unless you want to look foolish – JR’s post is the argument.
May 19, 2021
MiC
“such as âEat more fruitâ, and of course âVote Conservativeâ. ”
…….and too much of either can give you the s..ts.
May 19, 2021
Let the Australians have free access for wine. UK wine is a niche market. Wine is the major part of Australian exports.
Look after UK lamb. It is a small price for Australia to pay to conclude a good deal. Beef too. Refrigerated meat imports from large countries at cut price could hurt our beef farmers.
Our fishermen have been throw under the bus. Donât do the same to UK farmers.
May 19, 2021
I was in Sainsburys an hour ago and wanted minced lamb. NZ lamb was ÂŁ1.30 cheaper than Welsh lamb and I live 5 miled from the Welsh border! We are doing something wrong. I bought the Welsh lamb to support our farmers but alot won’t.
May 19, 2021
Source Jamie Oliver website ‘British newborn lambs are only a month or two old at Easter, and not ready for our dinner plates. So where do all our Easter roast lamb joints come from? Retailers are often forced to import lamb from other countries, particularly New Zealand, to meet the demand.
Meanwhile, some British farmers are trying to reduce imports by encouraging sheep reproduction earlier in the year. However, this means these lambs will often be raised indoors instead of on pasture. ‘ This could add to the cost of British Lamb out of season.
May 19, 2021
Fedupsoutherner, I would want to know what you are supporting between that Welsh sheep farmer and your shopping basket. I suspect too many are in the trough.
May 19, 2021
F.U.S
Well done you.
May 19, 2021
FuS
” I bought the Welsh lamb to support our farmers but alot wonât.”
As long as there’s independence rhetoric coming from there I won’t buy their produce either. Consumer choice you see.
May 19, 2021
fedupsoutherner,
Well done for buying Welsh lamb. The farming sector in the UK is already small and getting smaller. There are reasons other than cost for supporting a vital sector like food production.
The Vesteys pioneered the shipping of refrigerated beef from Argentina where costs were much lower than in the U.K.
In the early 20th century they tried the same in the Northern Territory of Australia. To keep costs low they did not pay their aborigine workforce in cash. They offered them food and drink by way of compensation. Even then, this was very badly regarded and Vestey had to pull out of Australia after a few years.
So letâs have some food production in this country and pay the price for it. âCheapâ is not the be all and end all of everything.
May 20, 2021
Apparently Oz is overpopulated and is drying out with drought so how long can they produce any food?
May 19, 2021
The UK has long been a net importer of beef, and overall the question would pretty much boil down to whether we should continue to import beef from the Irish or turn to other suppliers like the Australians.
https://ahdb.org.uk/news/uk-beef-self-sufficiency-and-impacts-of-brexit
“In 2019, the gap between UK beef production and domestic consumption was 152,000 tonnes. In order to fill this deficit 315,000 tonnes of beef were imported, as 163,000 tonnes were exported.”
“The major exporter of beef to the UK is Ireland. In 2019, Irish beef accounted for 78% of imports entering the UK.”
But since the late autumn of 2017 none of that Irish beef has entered my household, not if I can help it.
May 19, 2021
Yes Dennis – strangely, many folk don’t seem to understand that buying Irish meat and butter is just the same as buying from any other EU Member state. Certainly not the Supermarket Manager when I asked him if he had any British rump steak and he took me to the meat aisle and handed me a package clearly marked as being ‘Irish’. đ
May 19, 2021
Denis, Me too. No beef from Eire. No pork from Germany. I try to avoid any EU food, though I do make some exceptions for Polish and Italian produce.
May 19, 2021
+1
May 19, 2021
Well said Dennis,
Bravo !
More import substitution opportunities before we even think about sending our own real resources elsewhere.
May 20, 2021
No, I didn’t say that! Here we get Dennis for Denis and loose for lose all the time for different persons. Is this the state of UK education even for oldies here?
May 20, 2021
Denis Cooper
“But since the late autumn of 2017 none of that Irish beef has entered my household, not if I can help it.”
…..My sentiment exactly Denis. I stopped buying Irish foodstuff the instant their country insulted and betrayed ours.
I would prefer the government to act by banning Irish lorries from British roads.
May 19, 2021
I agree. Don’t let the NFU or any other vested interest get in the way. Remember the words of Adam Smith: “People of the same trade seldom meet together … but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public.”
May 19, 2021
Boris lives for such half- baked moments of Glory for himself. Invariably, they don’t t live up to the initial hubris. Then someone else pays the price of his superficiality. He is looking like a danger to our future.
May 19, 2021
Lies again. Welfare : Just passed a law making it impossible for UK Farmers to export live animals. Short journey times and regulated temperature controlled transport now required for the UK . Yet you lie and tell us that the welfare of Australian animal production is as good as the uk . It is not.https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/sectors/animal-health/farm-animal-welfare-global-review-summary-report/
May 24, 2021
The EVERGIVEN is still in the canal. Just saying.
May 19, 2021
Good morning.
New Zealand lamb anyone !
Undoubtedly opening up our markets and others is definitely the way to go. It will bring in investment to both countries and with so many cultural, historic and language ties I see it as an overall positive rather than negative. What I would like to see is us having FTA’s with Third World Countries t help develop their markets. By helping the out of poverty through trade we can solve many of the worlds problems.
TRADE NOT AID !
May 19, 2021
+1
May 19, 2021
Well Said, Sir.
May 19, 2021
Agreed. Trade not aid every time.
May 19, 2021
@Mark B – Agreed
Third World Countries are stuck in a bind as a result of produce produced under the CAP (therefore taxpayer funded) undermining World Markets.
The EU is not a simple ‘trading block’ but a full blown protectionist block with pretty shabby quality standards. I am reminded how the UK had to ‘lower’ its food quality standards to come into line the EU on joining.
May 19, 2021
I well remember having a business meeting with a customer who lived on the west coast of Wales and agreeing to meet halfway (kind of) in Bala. I drove there through fields full of Welsh sheep and their new lambs and we decided to have roast lamb for lunch. It was excellent and we complimented the waitress on their local produce. “Oh no, it’s from New Zealand” she said – and this was pre-EU.
We traded with the Commonwealth freely before the EU and we should trade with them on the same basis now that we have left it.
May 19, 2021
+10
May 19, 2021
Mark B
+1 well said.
May 19, 2021
Yes when this deal was made public some UK beef and sheep farming interests suggested it would be difficult to compete. My first thought too was the distance cost. If UK costs are higher then we should look at the on costs in the UK supply chain. I suspect that between the farm gate and customer there are too many adding their percentage.
It would be enlightening to all to define the UK supply chain and its add ons at each stage. Start with a live cow leaving the farm gate at a nominal figure of ÂŁ5.00 per Kg. Who adds what percentage to that before it reaches the end user. We could ask the same questions about fish and shell fish too.
One fact is for sure, I do not pay anywhere near as much in Spain for meat and fish as I am expected to pay in the UK. Looking at UK hotel prices, post Covid, the same comment applies. The UK is a very expensive place to live for sure.
May 19, 2021
They have to add a percentage because they all have a pile of tax to pay, which has to be passed on to the next customer in the chain and finally the consumer.
May 19, 2021
Beef prices are around ÂŁ3.00Kg in Australia and around ÂŁ4.00Kg in the UK., then the australians have to get it to the UK. I see no basic problem. As I have said we need to look at the profit taking between the farmer having sold his animal to when it arrives in a shopping basket.
Look at petrol prices ÂŁ1.30/litre at my local Tesco. Demand is nowhere near it’s peak post Brexit/Covid. Is someone trying to coerce us into going electric
May 19, 2021
Meat is not cheap in Spain. In fact, most things are more expensive with limited choice. Fish is perhaps cheaper because they eat a lot of it. Alcohol is definitely cheaper. Food in the UK is the cheapest itâs ever been and our supermarkets the best in the world.
May 19, 2021
Lamb & beef are very expensive in the UK. Chicken and pork is more affordable. I understand that our farmers don’t supply the UK market much with lamb because they are relatively small and the bits we like are therefore less available, whereas the Continentals will eat any old thing.
May 19, 2021
You need to get out more often.
May 20, 2021
You must be shopping in Marbella.
May 19, 2021
Our supermarkets need to look out for the new Russian supermarket coming to the UK. Apparently it’s very popular in Europe and very cheap as they don’t need warehouses. There is one opening in my local town soon. Will be 30% cheaper than the German supermarkets.
May 19, 2021
A very successful business(Svetofor,trading as Mere);it’s got 3,200 stores in FSU,Germany &E Europe and is moving west.
Another Russian discount retailer (Fix Price-with 4,100+ stores all in FSU but may also be expanding westwards)has just floated on the LSE,-Priced right at the top of the range due to investor demand and achieving a good premium in early trading.It’s market capitalisation is c8bn( M&S is only 3bn!).
The FT keeps telling us that Russia is going bust(someone should tell them wishful thinking is not journalism!);those of us who invest there and have made very good returns(and expect further good returns) beg to differ!
May 19, 2021
One of the major overhead costs in the British food chain up to the retail outlet is landlordism. I have read a discussion amongst banksters as to whether they should invest in farmland. There should be a prohibition on parasites adding to the costs of farming and shopping. Parasitism by landlords adds major costs to every aspect of our lives and the tax system needs to drive these people into the productive economy whereas now it is all too easy for a sloth to decide to live off other people’s toil.
May 19, 2021
forthurst
Nearly all my farming customers wanted an end to absentee landlords. Remove the subsidies they will look for easier pickings and the farmers that can, will do it and make more money.
Landowners and turbine farmers have the money to have a big impact on livestock prices at auction. It is not a level playing field by any stretch of the imagination. Get rid of the leeches and farming will flourish.
May 20, 2021
I agree – we should know that.
May 19, 2021
Here is a part of some notes that I appended to a letter I sent to the Times back in September, in that case concerning the low value of a free trade deal with the EU:
“EXTRAPOLATION OF THE PROPOSED ‘GOLD STANDARD’ TRADE DEAL WITH AUSTRALIA”
“Liz Truss aspires to a “gold standard” free trade deal with Australia, and while that may be very nice to have – because they are our friends, indeed even now they may still be regarded as our “kith and kin” – on the government’s own projection at most it would enhance our GDP by a negligible 0.02%.
To see that it is only necessary to look at the summary diagram on page 32 in the long and detailed official assessment here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/901886/uk-strategy-australia-free-trade-agreement.pdf
Also in that document it is stated on page 31 that in 2018 the UK’s exports to Australia were worth ÂŁ11.9 billion. In that year UK GDP was ÂŁ2144 billion, therefore exports to Australia represented 0.56% of our national output.
According to Appendix 9 here:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7851/
in that same year our total exports to the rest of the EU were worth ÂŁ296.8 billion, or 13.8% of our GDP.
Both of those numbers are close to 25 times greater than the corresponding numbers for our exports to Australia.
It follows that a good estimate of the likely benefit of a similar “gold standard” free trade agreement with the EU would be the 0.02% enhancement expected from the Australia deal scaled up by a factor of 25, which would work out as a trivial 0.5% of our GDP.
At the trend growth rate of the UK economy since the war that would be equivalent to natural growth over less than one average quarter.
The point is that we are not living in 1947 when it was normal for countries around the world to impose high tariffs and other tight restrictions on imports but in 2020 after more than seven decades of extensive liberalisation of global trade, and we have entered a region of diminishing returns from special trade deals. There are exceptions, but the general case is that they are now of very marginal value.”
Since then the EU Commission has estimated that Boris Johnson’s “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU is worth about 0.75% of GDP to us, more to them, while Liz Truss continues to refuse all requests for a UK government estimate of its overall economic benefit.
May 19, 2021
All these static analyses based on current trade flows are nonsense. I believe itâs the case that exports to Australia have fallen from 9% to 1% of the total since 1973 as trade was diverted. There has been a similar fall in the other direction. There are massive opportunities to global free trade, especially in services and new industries. No civil service driven analysis would pick this up. Theyâd have no idea where to look.
May 19, 2021
So some do say, but then the UK advocates of free trade deals do keep producing them.
A notable exception being any analysis of Boris Johnson’s free trade deal with the EU.
May 19, 2021
Doesn’t matter, bigger issues than money are at stake. Surely the point of FTA’S is to increase business. We may have low business at the moment, but Australia is a young and growing country, whereas the EU is mature and mostly stagnant and poor. We have a tariff of 20 percent against Australian meat products and no doubt they have something reciprocal. It also signifies friendship with a country we have common bonds with, rather than the feudal way the EU has treated us for 40 odd years, who we have often been at war with over many centuries. We need forgiveness from Australia and New Zealand for the callous way we dropped them in favour of the EU. The FTA must be done.
May 19, 2021
“we” didn’t drop them.
May 19, 2021
What would you call it?
May 19, 2021
Our remainer infested establishment are the ones needing forgiveness, why should I take any responsibility for a decision that and disadvantaged friends and family I did not want and had no hand in.
I don’t believe the perpetrators should have any relief from their error of judgement by attempting to dilute their responsibility.
May 19, 2021
My presumption is in favour of free trade, but without expecting too much from most special trade deals.
To repeat part of what I wrote above:
“The point is that we are not living in 1947 when it was normal for countries around the world to impose high tariffs and other tight restrictions on imports but in 2020 after more than seven decades of extensive liberalisation of global trade, and we have entered a region of diminishing returns from special trade deals.”
May 19, 2021
Freedom no longer exists in any sphere of life. We can thank your party and that stain in opposition for this catastrophic state of affairs
May 19, 2021
Dom – With us being the most watched ( by cctv ) nation on the planet and the push for every single person to have whatever it is, injected into them, under threat of being effectively locked up freedom has gone. Even the govt has approved the “vaccine” where the manufacturer apparently has no responsibility for side effects.
Once, trying to report a crime that had only just happened, the officer was only concerned with getting all MY data ( name, DoB, address, how long there, email, phone numbers mobile and home, broadband supplier, etc etc. She even started shouting at me that she didsn’t believe me when I said I didn’t do facebook, twitter What’s app etc – because EVERYBODY does it. The crime was clearly of NO importance. Another time I also had the same when ringing the local council to report a fly-tipping that was happening about 30 yards away – my data was of more concern. Data gathering is all they are bothered about.
Pity the govt has no concern about who they are waving in to live on our taxes while their next target is selected to die.
May 19, 2021
+1
May 19, 2021
I support the FTA – particularly now that China is doing its utmost to attack the Australians’ economy. I hope that it offers some openings for our financial services sector too.
May 19, 2021
After watching the Border Patrol programs from Australia and see how many Chinese are trying to get destructive plant types into Australia I firm;y believe that it is being done on purpose.
May 19, 2021
+1
May 19, 2021
Yes time to wind down on chinese dependency. Support Australia, New Zealand, and the CPTPP. Not, I would add that I have anything against the people of China, it is their imperialist expansionist government I abhor. I welcome the Hongkong chinese who choose to leave. The chinese government must learn that the free world does not accept their form of government that oppresses Tibetans and their own people, not to mention the pandemic they have caused.
May 19, 2021
Agricola
Isnât New Zealand currently cosying up to China in an extremely worrying manner?
May 19, 2021
I see an Amazon type business opportunity. They buy ex abattoire in the UK or chilled ex shipper for imports. In the case of UK beef they store for a minimum of 28 days, imports having been at sea for that time, and sell on the internet, just as Amazon sell me books. Quality should be the criteria, not so difficult when competing against UK supermarkets.
May 19, 2021
One of the many reasons that Argentine beef was popular before we joined the EEC. It was transported in British flagged ships in chilled (not freezer) compartments for a voyage duration of a little under 3 weeks.
The same could be said of beef imported from Australia with a voyage duration of around 4 weeks.
May 20, 2021
Once sailed on a yacht delivery with a ships officer from the Argentine trade, as crew. He was appalled at what the UK meat industry did in freezing his carefully temperature nurtured cargoe after it was landed. I often buy argentinian beef in Spain based on quality when available.
May 19, 2021
A tariff free deal with Australia will destroy UK farming. As you know. But darenât admit.
Reply It is full of opportunity for U.K. food and farming. Australia does not sell much lamb to us despite the TRQ concessions offered currently.
May 19, 2021
Because you say so.
May 19, 2021
There were farms in the U.K. before 1973 when some 25% of Australiaâs trade was with the U.K.
The argument that we need protectionism for U.K. agriculture is nonsense. If you really canât compete but we see a social value in keeping the level of agriculture we have now then letâs give you a direct subsidy – linked to keeping the land in good condition with clear and open access for the public.
May 19, 2021
@NFU, UK farming flourished before EU protectionism, EU massive subsidies. I would suggest those farmers that believe in their industry, believe in what they are doing are not that comfortable with the taxpayer bailing them out with subsidies.
If anything their should be duties to the ‘tune’ and equal to the taxpayer funding the EU Producers receive on EU Products. For years the EU Commission has perverted and distorted World Trade with this taxpayer funding. Maybe not so wrong when it only protects internal markets, but when this handout industry exports they undermined the Worlds Markets. The CAP as it is called, has done more to depress third World Countries getting on the ladder – it punishes third World Countries by purposefully undermine their(3rd World) own producers
May 19, 2021
We paid the EU to subsidise their farmers so they could sell tariff free to us. At least we won’t be ‘paying’ Australia to trade with us. I am all for competition, so long as standards are maintained. The protectionist EU destroys competition, and therefore encourages inefficient practices which benefits only the farmers and not the taxpayer who subsidises them and buys their produce.
May 19, 2021
NFU, can you tell us how it will destroy UK farming, please? Why can’t you compete with Countries at the opposite side of the World with shipping costs on top of farm gate prices? Do they lamb in our winter months?
May 19, 2021
NFU as a moniker. LOl, seriously? And all you can offer is a single assertion, plucked out of thin air with no analysis or logic or… God forbic… actual facts in support of your wild assertion.
If the UK’s farmers cannot compete then they need to change their business model – or their profit level. Many UK “farmers” were acually being paid by the EU to do nothing. That has to change.
May 19, 2021
Reply to reply. I saw plenty of NZ lamb today and cheaper too.
May 19, 2021
Yes most of this new trade imagined will require transhipping it through places like Singapore Hong kong and others all adding to the costs and the time. Stupid stuff
May 19, 2021
Not really bitterend.
The UK sells goods into markets far and wide.
Countries many thousands of miles from the UK successfully sell their goods into the UK.
May 19, 2021
It’s about time we helped our friends and alies.
The EU is a hostile power and should be treated as such.
The Welsh complain about losing market for their lamb but I can’t find it anywhere.
After years, a fresh fish stall has opened one day a week in our local market.
Things are changing for the better.
May 19, 2021
Agreed, we should buy more from our friends and less from our neighbours who do not behave as friends.
Unfortunately including the Irish, who have gone out of their way to be obstructive.
May 19, 2021
Exactly so, Denis. Trade with our friends, and avoid the nasty neighbours.
May 19, 2021
And I couldn’t find Scottish salmon when I looked for it just now – but there was some from Norway.
Your second sentence is key.
May 19, 2021
Ian Wragg
Indeen it is true there seems to be a push to sell British foods, which can only be a good thing. Our local supermarket also now has an excellent fish and meat stall, all British produce.
Moreover I’m convinced people are ating healthier as a result.
May 19, 2021
This seems to be the usual contradictory nonsense, which boils down to:
“Tariffs and barriers to trade with our 450 million neighbours 20 miles away – irrelevant who cares?”
“Tariffs and barriers to trade with 20 million people 10,000 miles away – utterly terrible and unacceptable”
Reply Nonsense. Try reading what I wrote
May 19, 2021
What a silly post. The objective has always been to have free trade, with the EU and with others. The argument from continuity remain however has been its essential to have free trade with the EU, but terrible to have it with any other country – unless of course under the auspices of the EU.
May 19, 2021
@MiC; Stop talking nonsense, it is you who wants to limit our trade, to the mere “450 million neighbours 20 miles away”, thus restricting out trade opportunities with the 7 billion odd in the RotW beyond the EU30 (including EFTA/EEA members).
May 19, 2021
I think geography fails you? What is the population of the few miles of coast near Calais – 20 miles from Dover? I doubt 450k let alone 450m. So go stand in the corner of the classroom.
May 19, 2021
We’re quite happy not to have ‘tariffs and barriers’ with our neighbours. It is the EU who conflate this with political union, uncontrolled immigration, and a hefty annual fee.
May 19, 2021
@MiC – you prefer an industry that through protectionism survives to undermine the Worlds Markets because it is funded by the ‘taxpayer’. That is not a united World in Harmony, if anything that is an unelected unaccountable regium weaponising trade.
May 19, 2021
Usual remainiacs nonesense.
Why don’t you upsticks and move to the EU.
Perhaps you have nothing to offer them.
May 19, 2021
+1
May 19, 2021
But we havenât got any tariffs on our trade with the EU. So Iâve no idea what point youâre trying to make ?
May 19, 2021
“The UK is a net importer of pig meat, currently importing around 60 percent of all the pork it consumes. The volume of these imports stood at 968,000 tonnes in 2015, about 30% of our production is exported. ” British meat industry.
“Total UK exports to EU in pig trade 6.5k from the UK 96.97k, were you as worried about our pig farmers? 37.1k total UK exports to non-EU. 279.51 total UK imports from non-EU” AHDB.
May 19, 2021
Yes and kept in disgusting conditions in EU farms where animal welfare is low or non existent.
May 19, 2021
Those are idiotic comments. We did not impose the FTA on the EU, we negotiated it with them, so any tariffs and barriers are there because the EU wants them to be there.
If the EU wants a true Australian style FTA with the UK, then why don’t they announce that and start negotiations in good faith?
If Australia can do that in a few weeks, why can’t the EU do it after 46 years? Don’t they know their own trading patterns? Don’t the EU know which goods they would like to see reduced tariffs and barriers on? are they going to pretend that after decades of UK EU membership they have to treat trade with the UK as a brand-new problem?
May 19, 2021
I am sure our farmers can compete with anyone in the World for products that are produced with our climate in mind, and whilst I fully accept that quality goods usually cost more to produce, and you inevitably get what you pay for, I just wonder if the problem of competitiveness is perhaps elsewhere.
Are they being saddled with too much regulation and cost by our own Government ?
May 19, 2021
Too many people in the supply chain all loading the price with margin percentages ?
May 19, 2021
The rolling over of all these trade agreements is a huge achievement by the Government. We should remember that for 5 years – until it became clear what would happen about a year ago – we were loudly assured by Continuity Remain that this would be impossible. We couldnât get the same terms as we could in the EU, if we could get deals at all we were assured. A major plank of Project Fear as fallen away. It is essential now to build on this and sign as comprehensive FTAs as we can with countries like Australia as an example of what can be done. We should of course also join CPTPP. Achieving this will be a game changer for the U.K., and in the whole debate as to whether Brexit was worthwhile.
May 19, 2021
Try telling this to the BBC Mr Redwood, especially the editor of Newsnight which had a highly biased piece last night on this (and pro protectionist of course). Similarly biased in its highly partial at best coverage of Israeli government reasoning for and actions against Hamas.
May 19, 2021
We have to keep scale in mind . The treasury were attacked by the Government as a nest of remainers and got the GDP loss long term at about 7.5% with EEA members at just under5% . In fact their estimates were conservative( as you would expect given their position ) throughout and they sit centrally amongst various reputable calculations which range up to an 18% long term loss .
Now personally I would laugh myself silly to see Farmers have to remove Penelope form the Pony club and take little de Pfeffel out of prep school and some cheap decent food would be ace but the overall gain to GDP form this deal at its best is a whopping spectacular0.02%.
Its a bit like driving your car into the sea saving the map in the glove compartment and wanting a round of applause
Ok then clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap bravo ..encore ..clap clap … ( can we go now ?)
May 19, 2021
Newmania, Why is it just the UK that’s a “clap clap clap” basket case outside the EU, and not all the other countries in the rest of the world – according to you? An entirely specious and speculative GDP “loss” long term was judged by the electorate to be not worth having in exchange for our sovereignty. You may not accept that judgement but do not make guesses out to be fact.
May 20, 2021
The claim that all economic forecasts beyond a year or two were just made up was the
(pitiful ) response of Leave propagandists to the problem that every reputable agency predicted a large costs for Brexit whilst they were claiming an outright gain.
Meanwhile the Government of the country continues on the basis this is not true as it always must were this populist anti knowledge view really believed by anyone we might just as well do the stupidest thing we can think of
Oh….
May 20, 2021
Newmania, Those “agencies” which forecast dire outcomes consequent on a vote to Leave were forced to rectify their guesses when they failed within months. Since they couldn’t guess right for 6 months or a year ahead, what value can be placed on their 10 year “forecasts”?
May 20, 2021
When do you thinkthe Remain predictions about empty supermarkets, Kent being a car park, no drugs at the pharmacy etc. will come to be?
May 19, 2021
Just heard someone called George Morgan Granville on R4 from the travel industry.
He sounded measured and intelligent. 10/10
Bone 2/10. Especially joke about Useless.
Its gone way past a joking matter.
May 19, 2021
I would not normally waste our hosts time adding a “me too” comment to an article I either have not real interest in or -as with this one- I’m in 101% agreement, but I seem to get criticised by some commentators for only ever ‘disagreeing, finding fault etc.’…. So can I just say;
Exactly Sir John, my thoughts precisely!
May 19, 2021
Free trade with a country half way round the world?
A country that has evolved to become more multicultural and less historically Europe heritage. Most Australians donât recognise the UK as being a friend.
Climate change means the world should be trading within geographical areas and not world wide.
May 19, 2021
‘Most Australians donât recognise the UK as being a friend.’
Nonsense – having travelled around it and having ‘born in Australia ‘ cousins nothing could be further than the truth. Wherever we have been the ‘locals’ want to engage in conversation with poms from the ‘old country’.
The ill-informed on this site often takes my breath away.
May 19, 2021
He voted remain and cannot see further than Calais.
May 21, 2021
Fred,
I was tempted simply to write ‘Rubbish’ in response to DB, but you have summed it up nicely.
May 24, 2021
Countries don’t have friend the4y just have interests.
You propose to destroy farming for ‘friendship’?
May 19, 2021
Where do you get that from Mr Brown? Most of my Oz mates still have friendly ties with the UK, and we (I being Australian also) are happy that remains so.
May 19, 2021
David Brown
“Most Australians donât recognise the UK as being a friend.”
Complete nonesense.
May 19, 2021
Exactly the whole world is going regional as far as trade is concerned with less distance to travel and cut down on transport and engine fuel costs including fumes into the atmosphere. Planning for anything else is bonkers in the extreme
May 19, 2021
Customers will decide what to buy.
May 24, 2021
Which always ends up in a race to the bottom.
May 19, 2021
Off topic please.
If the Indian variant isn’t filling hospitals and funeral parlours then so what if it is more transmissible ?
The Tories cannot punish the majority who have taken the vaccine for those who have refused to take it by cancelling Freedom Day.
Zero Covid is not a realistic aim. It will kill more than it saves.
May 19, 2021
Have you noticed that nobody is saying anything about the virulence of this variant?
The repeated concerns are that:
1. It is more easily transmitted than the Kent variant,
and
2. The vaccines may not be as effective against it,
but nothing is being said about the comparative severity of the disease it produces.
My guess is that on average it produces less severe symptoms than the Kent variant.
That is not idle speculation, because in India with its inadequate and collapsing healthcare system there have been only 283,000 recorded deaths from 25.5 million recorded cases, and that 1.1% mortality rate is about a third of the 2.9% mortality rate in the UK.
It also seems to me from TV news reports that it affects younger people.
May 19, 2021
Denis Cooper
According to Dr Mike Yeadon, ex-deputy head of Pfizer and an expert in respiratory disease the different variants are practically indistinguishable so the purpose of the Indian Variant would appear to keep project fear in the forefront of the minds of the public and will be used to justify the next lockdown and persuade more people to have the untested, experimental gene therapy… with much hushing-up of the numbers of people suffering from blood clots and other unpleasant side-effects, no vaccine is entirely safe particularly one which causes irreversible alterations to your DNA.
The posts carrying warnings disappear off YouTube as did James Delingpoleâs discussion with Dr Mike Yeadon but it can be found on Bitchute…and thereâs never any mention on the BBC of the dangers of the vaccine but other platforms such as Brand new tube and Bitchute still carry uncensored reports
May 19, 2021
My concern with the current news reports is that an element of sensationalism and scare mongering is creeping into the Covid news.
Science shows that vaccines are effective against the Indian Variant – even in India studies have shown to be the case.
This variant is no more dangerous than all other Covid types it is simply more transmissible.
The majority of people being infected with the variant are young people (who will quickly recover and gain immunity ) or people who sadly did not get the vaccine.
WE know this variant is primarily located within Asian communities and saturation testing and vaccination is taking place.
Based on the above facts I see no reason for sensational type of news reporting, it distorts the facts.
May 19, 2021
@NLA; “If the Indian variant isnât filling hospitals and funeral parlours then so what if it is more transmissible”
Deaths follow hospitalisations, hospitalisations follow infections, infections follow transmission – if in four to five weeks time the hospitals in those identified (Indian variant) ‘hot spots’ have not seen a spike in admissions then the next phase of opening up will likely go ahead.
“Zero Covid is not a realistic aim. It will kill more than it saves.”
No one is now talking about “Zero Covid” [1], any more than they talk about Zero Flu, that is why the govt has embarked upon the biggest vaccination program possibly ever so as many people can co-exist with the CV19 virus as possible, just as many do with seasonal Flu.
No one is dying because they did not catch CV19!
Some people have died of other morbidities, but as was pointed regarding the CV19 death count by the Covid sceptics, many such people would have died anyway. The sceptics can’t now try and claim otherwise…
[1] that hope vanished when the UK govt dithered about both closing our boarders and imposing a strict lock-down back in Feb/March last year, although both Australia and NZ are a lot closer to Zero Covid and that was the case even before the vaccines were developed
May 19, 2021
Morning John,
What about the ” real terms of trade ” ?
Real terms of trade is when you think of trade in skills and real resources terms and rarely mentioned.
In real resource terms stuff you can run out of.The real wealth of the UK is all the goods and services the country produces . Imports add to that pile of goods and services minus exports the goods and services you send away. That’s the real wealth of the UK.
Remember , when we send real resources away to another country we get paid in their currency. So what is the UK going to do with all these Aussie dollars that are piling up in the Australian central bank?
Exporters will exchange some of it to pay their wages and running costs. The government can buy Australian goods and services with it but after that then what ? We will exchange the Australian dollars for Australian bonds and they will just sit there gathering dust.
See China and US treasuries for details.
So then the trade question becomes do we want use our limited skills and real resources to make cars , Cheese, etc, etc, in exchange for Australian government bonds?
Or do we want to use those skills and real resources on something more productive. Rather than just help out exporters.
That is a political question. Those that win elections get to decide.
May 19, 2021
Derek H, By trying to be clever, yet being imprecise, you continue to make schoolboy errors in your conclusions. Remember “turnover is vanity; profit is sanity”. So what the UK produces each year is GDP, not wealth. And, as an aside, imports are not part of GDP. Wealth accumulates where we consume less than we produce. Whether some people put their wealth into Australian dollars is a matter of personal preference. It is not political. Unless you contend that your choices about other people’s money is superior to theirs.
May 24, 2021
Its not just about money though is it? The landscape would be very diffrent and this landscape is what bring tourist money to the UK.
May 19, 2021
I well remember the resentment and dismay in New Zealand when we joined the EEC as trade fell away substantially. I worked for a shipping line running between NZ and UK but we had to find new routes also. New Zealand have of course found other markets now but I am sure both our countries could still benefit from a FTA.
I look forward to buying more Australian wine and other products in the near future. I find it hard to believe that Uk Farmers cannot compete with products transported half way round the World.
May 19, 2021
Its time to cut the ‘faff’ and move on. Show how ‘protectionisms’ is dead. Show how people can mutually ‘get on’ and adapt without being bullied, coerced and down trodden.
May 19, 2021
Absolutely agree with the tenor of this article, and it is marvellous that trade and other relations with Australasia are being restored (after the bull-headed way the UK left the Commonwealth in the lurch pursuing the new European pastures).
Meanwhile Oz has much developed its product output so it may not be as easy for the UK to sell such items as more cheese and whisky as mooted by JR. The cheese from King Island and elsewhere, and the Tasmanian whisky for instance are of first-class quality and taste.
May 21, 2021
DUYFKEN,
Cheese here is excellent and cheap. Tasmanian whisky is ludicrously expensive. Looking forward to tariff-free Scotch.
May 19, 2021
While I agree with the thrust of the above, shouldn’t we also be protecting UK farmers from dumping, or at least making sure they are safeguarded.
What will happen if the UK is flooded with Australian lamb. That might be good for consumers, but it won’t go anywhere near in fulfilling a BREXIT requirement to be as self sufficient as possible. Something the lockdowns have reinforced – and the world is certainly not done with them!
We keep hearing about raw materials being hard to source due to lockdowns – How long before we run out of wood chips?
Making our own producers strong and able to replicate what we get from abroad should take advantage over easier imports.
May 20, 2021
Bryan Harris
+1
May 19, 2021
Free Trade Free Trade
BBC reporting that this government is paying off ÂŁ50-100K to older Farmers too retire early
Because they are more likely to be anti GREEN
More Blairite policies and social engineering
This is the private sector â just leave it alone
SirJ this is happening on your watch – there appears to be a new barmy idea everyday – and when I say barmy I mean anti traditional conservative party thinking
May 19, 2021
Obviously, I can’t be certain of the Governments reasons for doing this because I’m not a Fly on the Cabinet Wall but my guess it is something akin to ‘Help to Buy’. Apparently, a lot of young people are trying to become Farmers but can’t get land, could this be an initiative to ‘unblock’ the property chain?
May 19, 2021
Well, a fly on the wall may have been aware of the âferociousâbattle waging between DEFRA and the Department of International Trade regarding this Australian trade deal.
Obviously the government is desperate to buy in a new generation of farmers who will greenly abide by the escalating zero rubbish rules and run their farms into the ground.
All in order make way for cheap imports that would never meet the standards required here.
But then…if we are not to have Free Trade leaving the EU would have been a bit superfluous.
May 19, 2021
*All in order to make way for cheap imports.
Maybe they donât remember what they did to manufacturing?
May 19, 2021
@glen Cullen – this is part of the BBC inner circle ‘clap trap’, we need to go ‘Green’ we must go vegan. The older farmer produces for food, it is better we import our life blood. If the causes for enviourmental damage is exported the UK gets to ‘meet’ (deliberate) its targets.
As it was a BBC article it must be ‘true’ the taxpayer will fund anything the BBC wants, no question, no accountability. By all accounts BBC staff tries every trick in the book to ensure they don’t contribute equally to the society that pays their wages.
If we can free the farmers from the land can we please free the rest of us from the BBC. Not viewing or listening is one thing – but paying them by Law and not being able to hold them to account moves them into the realms of the Worlds Dictators.
May 19, 2021
I agree â but I want someone from the government to repute the BBC article
May 19, 2021
Glen, it might help you enormously if you were to read a bit more about the history of the Conservative Party.
The CUP is Britainâs oldest and most successful political party. Why that? The list of its mutations is a long one. One of its strengths lies in its ability to reinvent itself, always pragmatic and flexible, in pursuit of power rather than of ideology.
It is rather unfortunate that at different stages some âconservativeâ voters stopped recognise the CUP as their party. They were stuck in their idea(s) of what the CUP is/should be. Yes it had been like this or that. But it had evolved, the old gits had not. Too bad for them. Iâll certainly not pity them.
May 19, 2021
Yet the Conservatives sit in power with a huge 80 seat majority and enjoy a poll lead of over 10 points at mid term.
May 20, 2021
Hefner, Hilarious – you reveal yourself to be yet another Andy – blaming “old gits” for not keeping up with the evolving Conservative party. What is it about Remains that they despise older people so much? And, in any case the worst recent defeat for the Conservatives – 1997 – was likely because young gits “stopped recognising” them.
May 19, 2021
The bit I like, it that may bring sanity back to the World. Australians get to ‘slag of’, sledge the English, Brits and visa-versa particularly in sport and it is not seen as anything more than ‘fun’.
To many people are so ‘up themselves’ and ‘humourless’ they are destroying the difference that makes the ‘human race’ great.
On those points alone being seen to cooperate unfetter with people on the opposite of the World would be an illustration how warped some communities have become.
May 19, 2021
It is my understanding that meat prices in the far east are considerably higher than they are her. If so this is more of an opportunity for British farmers to export, albeit at a cost to the British consumer as meat prices become more equal. If not then it is to the advantage of British consumers who vastly outnumber British farmers.
Either way, the British public can choose the neat that best suits them.
May 19, 2021
I totally back your stance on this. If we can’t have a free trade agreement with one of our most reliable and long-standing allies there is something very wrong. If a few small scale beef farmers suffer, there is lots of ex-EU CAP money swilling about to encourage them into other crops. The specialists in, for example, Aberdeen Angus beef will be fine.
New Zealand is a different case. The socialist party running the country is now heavily leaning towards China, putting their Five-Eyes status at risk. We should take a long hard look at whether we want a deal with the Country while its politicians are taking it down such a dangerous course.
May 19, 2021
Back the Australian trade deal- you say- but instead it should be- ‘Back to the Future’ trade deal as we already had in the 1950’s 60’s except now we have no British owned merchant shipping anymore- gone are the days of Blue Funnel, Blue Star etc with the thousands and thousands of British seafarers gainfully employed. Instead you think it alright to tie ourselves into agreements with countries 10,000 miles away and then depend on mainly EU owned shipping companies to deliver- might be ok for most of the time but what if worldwide hostilities break out? what if we got another blockage in the Suez Canal situation or similar? The idea is bonkers when you think we already have a huge trading bloc right on our doorstep.
May 19, 2021
I didn’t know most ship transport from Australia are EU owned. Must be all the trade they do !
May 19, 2021
Well you should have done your homework beforehand. Consider all the great shipping companies out of europe headquarteted in Copenhagen Hamburg and Rotterdam and then if you want to consider MSC. nothing at all to do with UK
May 20, 2021
So what? Do I have to know who owns the bus I go into town on in case my village declares war on a neighbour. More likely the EU tries to and actually is doing damage to the UK.
They are commercial entities and will do and go where the money is to be made. Do you seriously suggest they won’t carry goods between UK and Australia simply because they are British or Australian? This really is Remoaners clutching at straws.
May 19, 2021
Speaking as a retired accountant, I think that âcrunching the numbersâ, although important, is rarely the most critical factor in deciding on a course of action. If it were, I would suggest to the naysayers here that they factor into their diet raw stray cats and dandelions.
I think it important to show the world who our friends are and that we can establish many free trade deals all over the world.
May 19, 2021
@John Miller +1
May 19, 2021
Sir John,
I see a free trade agreement with Australia as helping to right a wrong imposed on Australia and New Zealand almost half a century ago. For the Australians it would also provide some welcome good news after the bushfires, floods, and now a devastating plague of mice. All of this at a time of rapidly growing tension and aggression coming from China.
May 19, 2021
Brexitist mental gymnastics is a wonder to behold.
A free and frictionless trade deal with a tiny country on the other side of the world is apparently a big win.
But, apparently, the huge trade barriers they erected between the U.K. and EU and between GB and NI are not a problem.
Frankly, to claim you are in favour of free trade when you are responsible for the biggest imposition of trade barriers in history is a nonsense. But thatâs Brexit.
May 19, 2021
Total nonsense as we expect from you Andy. We erected no barriers, the EU in its fit of pique is doing all that because they are childish and supported by childish people incapable of thinking of standing on their own feet. We are quite happy to have free trade, but the EU can’t stand the competition, hence its demand for a ‘level playing field’. Like they get that from the rest of the world, ha. Grow up.
May 19, 2021
+1
May 19, 2021
Youâd have thought after all this time you would have understood what a border is and how it works.
Anyway – your thesis has been proven wrong. You have erected more barriers with our biggest trading partners than we have had in 40 years and you still donât seem to understand how you have done it.
Donât worry OLD chap – emphasis on the old – my generation will undo your mess in due course.
May 19, 2021
Ok,dear little one, educate an old man. Tell me the border controls we have erected against the EU. You don’t insult me by calling me OLD as you hope. You are closer to it than you think.
May 20, 2021
Haven’t you got it yet, Andy? Continental Europe does not believe in free trade and never has. Even the famous Hanseatic merchants were a cartel. The EU – and the unelected European Commission in particular – believe that even an approximation to free trade is only achievable if there is ever closer political union. The doctrine is complete nonsense. There is in the modern world a lot of tariff tree exchange of goods between countries that have no political connection whatsover. The flip side of the coin was the old Soviet Union. It had a large degree of political integration but only a lunatic would describe the Soviet economy as free trade.
When it was first passed, taking effect in 1987, the Single European Act came the closest to free trade that the EU has ever implemented. That Act gave the European Commission rights to issue Laws and Directives to control the Single Market. Mrs Thatcher thought that these rights would not be implemented, revealing her to be both cynical and naive at the same time. When the Maastricht Treaty became law in 1993, the EC used its powers with a vengeance. We had 28 years of EC Laws and Directives, designed to favour German technology, French style bureaucracy, big business and incumbent businesses.
I would love it if our host, who has full knowledge of this 28 years of meddling, would devote a whole blog to this subject, so that people like Andy would not be allowed to wallow in their ignorance.
May 21, 2021
EU border controls – where? Many you just drive through – especially ‘after hours’.
May 19, 2021
You people are deluded to the point of insanity , you leave a club, you then can`t get in and then you call it a fit of pique ….. pure undiluted bonkers .
Australians …yes lovely people, young confident funny , vast majority think Brexit is a bad thing and evidence the UK is still the self important inward looking old ladies armpit of a place they have always claimed it was.
May 20, 2021
Not making sense and not for the first time Newmania. We don’t want to ‘get in’, we just want to be treated like any other ‘third country’. Does the EU specify what goods can circulate in any other third country nation, demand money and a ‘level playing field’? I submit Sir, that you are deluded to the point of being bonkers by your blind support for anything the EU does and are not able to come to terms with reality. Perhaps you can answer the question I put to Andy as I know he won’t.
May 20, 2021
Saying that Leaves are insane – without any facts or logic to support your view – is inadequate to the point of pathos. Most countries in the world manage perfectly well without being in the EU. No Remain on here – you included – or elsewhere, has managed to say why the UK is the exception to the rest of the world. Until you can come up with something rational your tantrums are just bile.
May 20, 2021
America, South Korea and China are not in your EU club NM, yet they import huge amounts into Europe and have done for many years.
How does that happen?
May 24, 2021
The enacted rules that we helped to draw up.
You are no outside the castle trying to get in.
May 19, 2021
Andy, Only 6 of the 27 have a population higher than Australia, and it is bigger than all of the 27 put together. Your mental gymnastics appear to show you fell on your head.
May 19, 2021
Yeah – your mistake would be to conflate geographic size with population size. Sure Australia has a lot of big empty space. But population wise it is a minnow. And, hereâs the thing, people buy goods and services – empty desert doesnât buy anything.
Australiaâs population is 6% of the EUâs population. It has half the population of Colombia. It has fewer people than Ivory Coast.
So well done for making trade harder with countries full of people, and for making trade easier with empty spaces. Bravo.
May 19, 2021
to repeat Australia has a larger population than 21 of the Evil Empire.
May 24, 2021
Australia has a larger population then the EU? LOL!
May 19, 2021
Without political entanglement.
(You always miss out the big bit.)
May 19, 2021
NHS site login continues. Following an email from NHS saying all my details have been authenticated, I tried to log in. Email address, password, request to contact my GP surgery as the ndxt step. Failed 3 times saying it might be my details or the system is down at the GP surgery.
Meanwhile here I am standing in an imaginary queue waiting to prove to immigration in a foreign country that I have been vaccinated twice. Shambolic to useless.
May 19, 2021
When has a computer programme put in place by all of our past Governments worked first time without any problems.
They usually get cancelled after months/years of failure, and ÂŁmillions/Billions have been wasted.
First NHS Covid app attempt the last example, when they actually thought they could out think Google and Apple.
May 20, 2021
Agricola, sorry to hear you are having such problems.
I had already been registered for online access via my GP and used it for a year+ to manage my prescriptions. Downloading and setting up the NHS App went without a hitch and the vaccine certificate function appears to work fine.
So if you can get the GP access resolved (involves registering with a third party access provider once you have the GP’s key code) hopefully things will go smoothly for you.
May 19, 2021
How does that work then?
I thought weâd been ordered to cut down rigorously on all dairy and meat. Or is that why there is âimport hesitancyâ for those goods?
Cars will be fewer and more expensive. And who will have jobs? Universal Basic wonât help buy cars.
And how will they get the goods back and forth? Paddle boat? ( Ooops..too much exhaled CO2!).
Not to mention alcohol.Where will it be sold? Purchased for lone, home sozzlement ?
Not much âsavingâ of NHS and whatever Australia might have re healthcare. Cirrhosis pandemic.
Do wrecked economies/countries that canât even deal with a virus actually trade?
May 19, 2021
I can’t help feeling that you might get a better response if you posted to an ‘Agony Aunt’ in the local press.
May 19, 2021
Did I ask for your approval?
May 19, 2021
@Everhopeful – the point is if we export all our production and jobs then import our daily needs this particular Government believes the UK will be seen as ‘Green’ and squeaky clean. Then it will be able to look for praise from the demented few that pushed it that way.
On the money front, as in income. The Government has an answer for that they will reimburse you for lost income, invest in the NHS, invest in infrastructure and education. They have something in their ‘back-pocket’ called the taxpayer, that is able to supply an endless stream of financing for all their aspirations.
May 19, 2021
Yes..I gathered that.
They are offshoring.
Green washing.
May 19, 2021
Eustice is a remainer and as a farmer type, he is trying to preserve a staus quo that farmers believe is good for them (but isn’t really) and is certainly bad for British consumers.
There are rumours that he has threatened to resign – well, fine, off you go then George.
Gove – God alone knows what goes through his head. If he were a farmer he’d probably spend his days plotting against his sheepdog.
May 19, 2021
First time I’ve really thought about this meat trade in beef, for example. When meat moved from S Ireland into the UK and the UK to S Ireland did that trade then become taxable by the EU? Or was this free trade with no EU tax or tariff when in the EU? The article in the bmpa said “Most beef imports into the EU are subject to ad valorem tariffs of 12.8 per cent, plus a fixed amount ranging from âŹ1,414 to âŹ3,041 per tonne, depending on the cut.” the British Meat Processors Association have a brilliant website, very clear.
britishmeatindustry.org. “Beef and veal exports only resumed in 2006 following the BSE-related ban and remain well below imports. In recent years, beef and veal exports have been around 100,000 tonnes, equating to 15â17% of production.”
ahdb “6 Nov 2020 â The major exporter of beef to the UK is Ireland. In 2019, Irish beef accounted for 78% of imports entering the UK. Ireland is also the largest export destination for UK beef…recent trade deals with Japan and the US have opened wider market access.
In 2019, the UK was 86% self-sufficient for Beef. This was an increase of 6% on the previous year due to a combination of increased production and reduced consumption. More beef needed to be exported to balance the market….Exports tend to be at a lower price than imports.
May 19, 2021
How does that work then?
I thought weâd been ordered to cut down rigorously on all dairy and meat. Or is that why there is âimport hesitancyâ for those goods? Or the TOTAL destruction of our farming? Plus undermine the blinking âUnionâ?
Cars will be fewer and more expensive. And who will have jobs? Universal Basic wonât help buy cars.
And how will they get the goods back and forth? Paddle boat? ( Ooops..too much exhaled CO2!).
Not to mention alcohol.Where will it be sold? Purchased for lone, home sozzlement ?
Not much âsavingâ of NHS and whatever Australia might have re healthcare. Cirrhosis pandemic.
Do wrecked economies/countries that canât even deal with a virus actually trade?
May 19, 2021
That blessed âduplicate commentâ thing.
I even added a few words to make it not duplicate but the previous had been published!!
Grrrrrrrrr!
Anyway…direction of travel is to make farmers manage land in biodiverse ways.
No more animals ( except deer) no more crops….no more CAP!
Outsourcing our industries so we achieve the ludicrous, mad, environmental, carbon zero cr*p.
No more British Beef.
May 19, 2021
With all the confusion going on over international travel and the news that there have been several arrivals from Delhi where over 50 passengers tested positive for Covid can I ask if anyone knows if the air staff all have to quarantine for 10 days?
May 19, 2021
I refer you to the response I gave some moments ago.
May 19, 2021
And I refer you to mine.
You are not a moderator.
( But you are rude).
May 19, 2021
I don’t know the details of the proposed deal (I don’t think any of us do) so can only talk in generalities. But my view is that trade deals are not an issue of religious dogma. They are a practical way of gaining an ADVANTAGE in international trade. So if the agreemnet gives the UK an advantage, it is good. And if it doesn’t, then don’t sign it. With this criterion in mind, I have to say that I am extremely disappointed in Liz Truss and wouldn’t trust her at all. From what I have read – and please correct me if I’m wrong – every single trade deal she has signed is forecast to benefit the other side more than us, with their exports to us increasing by far more than our exports to them. These one-sided deals are NOT my idea of gaining an advantage, and therefore I do not think we should sign them.
May 19, 2021
The EU/UK trade deal is massively more beneficial to the EU than the UK so should we have rejected that too? A deal with Australia may reduce some of the EU’s massive trading surplus with the UK and make us less reliant on that hostile organisation. For that alone, it is worth getting deals with non-EU countries.
May 19, 2021
The country with which we do the most trade (by far) is the United States; we do not have a trade deal with them, and we have a trade SURPLUS. It seems clear to me that WTO rules suit us just fine, so yes, to answer your question, I DO believe we should NOT have signed the EU trade deal, nor any other where the other party gains more than we do.
May 19, 2021
X-Tory
I think, only think, this is the first proposed Treaty that we have negotiated from scratch since Brexit.
Again I think, only think, from press releases all of the other Agreements are roll over agreements in whole or in part, from the original EU agreements.
May 19, 2021
I suspect that this has more to do with each Country’s trade balance rather than what is written in the contract.
May 19, 2021
You say we should do a deal if we get an advantage. Then you say we should NOT do a deal even if it gives us an advanatge, if the other side gets more advantage. Total contradiction. You wouldnât be safe with crayons. Please tell me you donât vote
May 19, 2021
I watched Politics Live with Jo Coburn and Labour’s Barry Gardiner and the Tory Laura Trott and a couple of journalists, and that ran into Prime Minister’s Questions, and at the end of it I thought that I may not be able to stand another five years of these people talking rubbish and ignoring basic facts such as the UK being a net importer of beef, so it will be to our advantage to have alternative suppliers competing for our business. Rather than imagining Australian beef farmers flooding our market and bankrupting our beef farmers try to imagine Australian beef farmers displacing EU beef farmers, especially Irish farmers, as our suppliers. If it did ever get to the point where our farmers were actually in serious trouble thanks to cheap imports, and there was a risk that they would stop farming and allow the land to revert to unattractive scrub, then the government could step in to reward them for the amenity value their farming provided.
https://ahdb.org.uk/news/uk-beef-self-sufficiency-and-impacts-of-brexit
“UK beef self-sufficiency and impacts of Brexit”
May 19, 2021
If a cheap and rapid nationwide food transportation system and the broadband infrastructure BT and successive governments have been promising (but not delivering) were finally rolled out, farmers could rely on online-order customers for vacuum-packed meat (and fishmongers do the same for fish) to maximise the customer base beyond local retail, and make the business worthwhile.
Many UK farmers are stymied by existing retail chains that give supermarkets monopoly powers – this can be broken by an online retail model. Farmers could band together to sell on a single website with pooled admin.
May 19, 2021
Btw, This fast-supply online business model would help UK farmers ride the tide of imports following the Aus/NZ/CPTPP agreement – which surely anyone must favour who understands its advantages.
The change-averse NFU would happily engineer the return of CAP and even the Corn Laws, if it could.
May 19, 2021
Well from what I saw on the news this morning it was all about the Scottish NFU moaning, not a single mention of English farmers.
According to Nichola Sturgeon the Scottish people want independence anyway, so they won’t mind if we choose to buy NZ & Australian produce instead. Scotland’s farmers are of course free to pursue other markets.
So what is the message here?…….we don’t like England but we want exclusive rights to English markets ? One can only grin at their logic.
May 19, 2021
Our approach to the sale of agricultural products in the UK should be to reserve a certain percentage of the market for UK products (say about 70% for reasons of military preparedness) and import the remainder from the cheapest safe sources of supply. Australia would probably do well given such a policy.
May 19, 2021
The European Union decided that export-led growth was the way to go. The UK told them they were stupid but they didn’t listen and failed to recognise that exports are real costs and imports are real benefits in natural resource terms.
That did make some sense under what was called mercantilism, where the game was to get as much gold as possible, whoever had the most gold wins, so the exporters were building gold stocks, and whoever got the most gold won.
But, if youâre going to do it, you can look at the old German export-led growth model, You use tight fiscal policy to suppress domestic demand and you have all kinds of structural reforms and deals with the unions and labour to keep wages down to keep competitiveness, and that helps your exports. Suddenly youâre competitive it makes your currency stronger.
What Germany used to do is, they would buy dollars to keep the Mark down. They even bought lira to export to Italy, to keep the Mark down versus the lira. So part of the export-led growth strategy is, you have to buy the other guyâs currency whether you like it or not to keep your competitiveness, otherwise your currency appreciates and your policy is self-defeating. Thatâs happened a couple of times over the years in the European Union, when just as exports get going a little bit the euro goes up, and then expprts go down and you lose your advantages.
Draghi tricked the worldâs portfolio managers into selling euro by doing things that they think are inflationary, that they think are expansionary, things that cause a currency to go down, and those are negative interest rates and quantitative easing.
All the worldâs Western-educated economists, all think that pumping up the money supply through quantitative easing and negative rates makes the currency to go down and it causes inflation. Theyâre wrong, because it doesnât, those policies remove interest income, theyâre taxes on the economy, they actually cause the currency to get stronger, they cause the price pressures to go lower, you get deflationary pressures instead of inflationary pressures. Weâve seen the deflationary pressures for 20 years in Japan And a decade in the Eurozone And the policies of quantitative easing and negative rates have done nothing to ease that. Drahgi frightened portfolio managers around the world into selling their euro. No wonder he was smiling all the time.
What happens when you are running a trade surplus is the world is selling dollars to buy euro, to buy products. Selling yen to buy euro to buy products. So it puts continuous upward pressure on the euro, which in recent years has been offset by massive portfolio selling. You can look at the drops in central bank holdings but at some point that dries up.
Portfolio selling, is like the soyabean crop failed because it didnât rain and there was a drought. You would think that the price would go up because of supply and demand, but if a big companyâŠhad a huge warehouse full of soyabeans, and had it backwards and decided to believe that the drought was going to cause prices to go down instead of up and they started selling their warehouse full of soyabeans, well the price would go down even though there was a drought and a shortage, because all of the supply is coming out of the warehouse.
Eventually theyâre going to run out, and there is a shortage, people are eating more than is being grown and the price is going to go up at some point, but it all depends on the size of their warehouse, the price can go down for a long time. But you can see the flows when you see the international accounts. You can see itâs going down and you can see the euro reserves are dropping all over the world in all of these official types of accounts, and they can only drop so far and then theyâre gone.
Which is trading the euros out as fast as theyâre selling them, and then theyâre gone and then everybodyâs underweight in euro or short, and they are no euro to buy back. Then it goes the other way.
Drahgi has left the building and won’t be blamed. Of course if you choose an economic policy whereby you choose to use your own skills and real resources to send your natural resources abroad in exchange for the target countries currency. No wonder your bridges collapse and your own infrastructure suffers as you’ve ran out of skills and real resources to fix them. They are all being used in producing exports.
Madness !
Is it any wonder Brexit happened.
May 20, 2021
Why are we obsessed only with the meat trade? Surely there is other stuff we can sell them ?
May 20, 2021
You are so right to remind us how the UK turned its back on Australia and other Commonwealth allies after they joined the EEC. How silly it was to disconnect from a large part of the world that the UK had provided with the benefits of advanced British know how, culture and language to become beholden to the UK’s traditional rivals and enemies on the continent. In my view, those who allowed this to happen should have been charged with treason.
May 20, 2021
Whatever are the right and wrongs of the past we should not think or act as if we owe Australia any favours. We are not a superior nation with wealth we can offer around as if they are in need of our patronage. Those days are passed and we should not be so naive.
Sadly there are many in our society who delude themselves in this way and if their view prevails we will lose.
May 20, 2021
NickC, I am happy to cause you such hilarity. Laughing is supposed to be good for health âŠ
By chance I came upon a report by Paul McClean dated 30 May 2017 in the Financial Times. He points out that by leaving the EU the UK was turning its back to 759 agreements with 168 countries that the EU had signed over the years: 295 about trade, 202 related to regulatory cooperation, 69 about fisheries, 65 about transport, 49 about customs, 45 about ânuclear topicsâ, 34 regarding agriculture.
As pointed by another contributor here, it would seem that the Secretary of State for International Trade has in essence mostly been rolling over the trade deals that the EU has with the various countries.
Could we have a list of the really really new trade deals recently signed including the improvements/advantages that these are/will be bringing to the UK.
Thanks in advance to any person able to disentangle the reality from the propaganda.
May 20, 2021
Crunch time for Brexit. Are we dumping the British version of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy in favour of cheap farm imports? This is the 19th century Corn Law debate all over again.
If we are going down the 0% tariff route it will mean major restructuring of farming. Australia will be small scale compared to the impact of the USA’s farmers on UK farmers.
May 25, 2021
The steel industry is going to welcome the opertunities in competing with Chinese steel on a level playing field now we are out of the EU.
Lets see Johnson sell that to the North East.
May 25, 2021
The question is will the Government deliver its Brexit promises to take back control. NIP, borders, trade agreements.
Lets have no more nonsense like “implementation periods” and others which aim to thwart the emancipation of the UK from the EU tentacles. The remainer establishment is clearly aiming for a Brexit reversal.
Lets be generous to those who will more likely return the favour for a change. Remember we paid ÂŁbillions to allow the EU to sell us a trade deficit.
Our supply chains need to be secured and moved to reliable, non-EU international partners. UK customers wont be shy about buying non EU. Just move to WTO. Be done with the EU.
If the deal fails then examine the BINO approach to date and the abhorrent withdrawal deal.