News: 1600068606

A nation made up of four (or maybe more) other nations? As Karl Deutsch said, a nation :- "a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours". Correct enough then. --->

the UK is NOT a nation. Well, unless you're English but hey, don't blame them, takes ages to shake off this imperial delusion. The French still feel this phantom limb too ;)

I may have missed it but you don’t seem to have mentioned the great deal the UK achieved in agreeing no or low tariffs on cheese to a predominantly lactose intolerant country.

The deal already had plenty of provisions for cheese - with tariffs falling to ( if I remember correctly ) zero by 2033.

So Japan clearly has a domestic cheese market otherwise they wouldn't have import tariffs on cheese.

So Japan clearly has a domestic cheese market otherwise they wouldn't have import tariffs on cheese.

The UK exported [1]434 tonnes of cheese to Japan in 2019, up 90% on the previous year, and worth [2]£102,000 . This was an absolutely whopping 0.2% of UK cheese exports.

Tariffs on hard cheeses (the bulk) are 29% and these, with quotas and tariffs for other kinds of cheeses, will reduce to zero over the next, err, 13 years.

[1] https://ahdb.org.uk/news/how-much-cheese-do-we-send-to-japan

[2] https://www.ft.com/content/dbfff350-f404-4c10-96fc-64da55a8fb09

"cheese ... lactose intolerance" Stick to the hard stuff! E.g. cheddar cheese is low in lactose.

"Well, er, then you steal some cheese, Brie or Camembert, or Cheddar or Gouda, if you're on the harder stuff. You might go and see one of the blue cheese films... there's a big clock in the middle of the room, and about 12:50 you climb up it and then... eventually, it strikes one and you all run down."

...the Japan/EU "deal" effectively say: "if you give/get a better deal with another, we want the same" ?

"The British government has said that the deal will bring in £15bn in trade between the UK and Japan, but hasn't said when the cash will flow."

We have become accustomed to interpreting such statements with these rules:

First, assume the headline figure would, at best, be over a period of many years, often ten or more. Think trickle rather than flood.

Second, assume the money will flow primarily in one direction. Probably not the direction you want.

Third, assume that the majority of the deal is not new. Often only continuing what is already extant.

Fourth, look for any other ways in which such a figure could have been inflated or is misleading.

Yes, Sir Humphrey.

Since the deal is basically replicating what we already had as a member of the EU, presumably what they really mean is they've managed to avoid a £15bn dive in trade that they expect would have happened if we'd had to revert to WTO rules.

No, they've improved on the Japan/EU deal, albeit with Japan getting more of the benefits than the UK.

However that doesn't negate the fact that this is a better deal with Japan than the EU managed. Better. Improved. A step up.

Which is nice.

The most betterly bettery best deal ever , or at least since the one we signed with the Faroes. Just don't look too hard for actual betterness, but sometime soon it will be world beating.

"However that doesn't negate the fact that this is a better deal with Japan than the EU managed."

Better for Japan, as it includes the elements on digital services and products that it wanted including in its deal with the EU. It's worth about 0.07% of UK GDP, so financially and economically insignificant. And there are areas where the absence of a UK-EU deal would have a detrimental effect on trade with Japan. What is important is that it effectively retains the status quo that Anglo-Japanese trade had under the EU-Japan deal. It potentially aids in our signing up to the CPTPP in the longer term, though our government's cavalier approach to negotiations as evidence by the Internal Markets Act may make signing up more difficult, our "trustworthiness" appearing suspect.

Better for both parties, unless you're a mercantilist and believes that imports are a necessary evil rather than a good thing.

Everybody does this.

For example Oxfam's declarations on poverty never include what is already being done - for example, if we didn't have housing benefits, millions would be homeless. Therefore the UK has a homeless epidemic and action must be taken now.

EU had already recognised Japan as having a data protection regime that met its adequacy requirements so there were never any barriers to data sharing with Japanese hosted systems anyway.

"so there were never any barriers to data sharing with Japanese hosted systems"

Correct, but in the case of personal data there could be as soon as the UK becomes a Third Country without an adequacy decision. Japan waited a couple of years for one, and there were no serious barriers, unlike in the UK where, just for example, national security legislation and some clauses of the DPA 2018 may prove significantly problematic.

However this report appears to deal with more than personal data. For non-personal data there are pretty much no general regulatory requirements to consider other than those embodied in treaties and contracts, so you're quite right.

So, almost one third of a Covid mooonshot?

Meh

The deal is the first negotiated by the UK alone after Brexit and is being hailed as a template for the many such deals to come once the nation completely and utterly departs the EU and is no longer bound by the bloc's existing deals.

So the template for UK trade deals is "roll over an EU one with a few tweaks"?

... and hope the other side still takes us seriously without the backing of the world's 2nd largest economy.

China?

The EU is not a single economy. Though people like to pretend it is for convenience or for show.

The EU, when it acts as one, is a superpower.

If it ever manages to grow a spine, that is. (see GDPR and safe harbour)

The point of Brexit is, after all to "return control" of Britain's affairs to the Civil Service. All the work which was being done by EU officials will now be done by civil servants, necessitating large increases in staffing at the Foreign Office, and securing plenty of high-paid jobs. It will also increase the prestige of the Permanent Secretary, as they will have more people under them, which is the main point of the civil service.

Photocopying the EU's work and sending that in just leaves more time for watching cricket and nice long lunches.

Parliament? What does that have to do with actually running the country?

I dunno, given some of the high profile resignations in the Civil Service, there are at least *some* people for whom integrity isn't just marketing BS.

Of course those people are no longer in the Civil Service, so....

So the template for UK trade deals is "roll over an EU one with a few tweaks"?

You say that as though it's a bad thing?

Nobody was complaing about the Japan trade deal before Brexit became a thing. Since we don't have the luxury of time at the moment it would strike me that the obvious tactic should be to request duplicates of any EU deals. Any renegotiation can always happen later.

The obvious tactic to achieving vibrant international trade would probably have involved not picking deliberate fights with your closest neighbours who happen to be your major trade partners and actually have heft as negotiating partners.

And we should think ourselves lucky if we get it, given that what we're offering in return is about 15% of what the EU trade negotiators had to offer when they were making those deals.

All your data are belong to us.