Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
The UK doesn't need to negotiate trade deals with every nation on Earth. We can choose which we prioritise and the terms we agree with them. The smaller, less important ones we can still trade with under the basic WTO rules if other arrangements prove impossible to make. Trade is a two way thing and a some people are forgetting that lots of countries will be very keen to trade with the UK and won't have anything to gain by making the process of doing so more complicated than it has to be. Quite the reverse in fact.
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Lots of countries have relatively little to gain through basic trade agreements with the UK as WTO MFN tariffs are already relatively low. What does have to be negotiated is the thorny issue of harmonisation of standards across a variety of sectors.
It's easy and very fast to get a trade deal with a nation if you're happy to bend over and agree to whatever they ask of you. Whether that's going to be the best deal for your own nation is of course highly debatable.
India and Australia both want immigration concessions - preferential access to the UK for their citizens. TTIP taken to the next level will be what the United States requires. Canada have already used CETA to get concessions from the European Union and Justin Trudeau has been quite open in his desire that Canada use CETA as a starting position to negotiate a more favourable deal with the UK than the one they were able to from the EU. CETA is, itself, a corporate dream.
If anyone seriously thinks this'll all be simple and every nation wants trade deals that involve simple removal of pretty small tariffs they're crazy. Every country in the world of any power and influence knows that the UK will be under economic pressure and will take the opportunity to take advantage.
Any nation that fails to do so is negligent with regards to their own citizens. We would do exactly the same to any other nation in our position, as would any nation on the planet with the capability. They owe it to their citizens to extract the best possible outcome for them.
Best of all, Parliament has no capacity to reject such deals. The Government of the day can happily agree to deals that are detrimental to the UK for purely political reasons, such as that they are desperate to prove that they can make a success of leaving the European Union, in order to win votes.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/co...vidence-16-17/