Liz Truss has been unusually clear on today’s Politics Live, saying that if the US demands higher drug prices in the UK in trade negotiations, the UK will walk away from the talks. Trade is, after all, meant to make things cheaper…
At first the Labour Party tried to claim the Tories wanted No Deal trade, now their attack line rests on the Tories going for an ‘any deal is better than No Deal’ philosophy. As far as Guido can make out, that’s what the Labour Party believes, not the Tories…
Liz Truss suffered a very hot flush during a trade meeting recently when a Tory party vice-chair managed to knock an entire cup of coffee over her red ministerial folder. Luckily her SpAds were on hand with a spare…
Guido thought he’d save the face of the MP responsible, but suggests the Young Dude spends the next Five Years seeing to it that his behaviour Changes if reelected. He’s hardly become one of Truss’s Heroes…
This week the UK reached agreements with South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini and Mozambique for trade continuity after Brexit, ensuring deals will be signed worth £10 billion to the UK economy.
These new countries mean that Liz Truss’ Department for International Trade has reached agreements in the last few months with 44 countries and the Palestinian Authority. Guido brings you the full, ever growing list along with their population and GDP here…
- Antigua and Barbuda 102,012 1.532 billion
- Bahamas 395,361 12.16 billion
- Barbados 285,719 4.797 billion
- Belize 374,681 1.838 billion
- Botswana 2.292 million 17.41 billion
- Chile 18.95 million 277.1 billion
- Colombia 49.07 million 309.2 billion
- Costa Rica 4.906 million 57.06 billion
- Dominica 73,925 562.5 million
- Dominican Republic 10.77 million 75.93 billion
- Ecuador 16.62 million 103.1 billion
- El Salvador 6.378 million 24.81 billion
- Eswatini 1.367 million 4.409 billion
- Faroe Islands 49,290 2.477 billion
- Fiji 905,502 5.061 billion
- Grenada 107,825 1.119 billion
- Guatemala 16.91 million 75.62 billion
- Guyana 777,859 3.676 billion
- Haiti 10.98 million 8.408 billion
- Honduras 9.265 million 22.98 billion
- Iceland 338,349 23.91 billion
- Israel 8.712 million 350.9 billion
- Jamaica 2.89 million 14.77 billion
- Korea 51.47 million 1.531 trillion
- Lesotho 2.233 million 2.639 billion
- Lichenstein 37,810 6.289 billion
- Madagascar 25.57 million 11.5 billion
- Mauritius 1.265 million 13.34 billion
- Mozambique 29.67 million 12.33 billion
- Namibia 2.534 million 13.24 billion
- Nicaragua 6.218 million 13.81 billion
- Norway 5.258 million 398.8 billion
- Palestinian Authority 4.817 million 15 billion
- Panama 4.099 million 61.84 billion
- Papua New Guinea 8.251 million 21.09 billion
- Peru 32.17 million 211.4 billion
- Seychelles 95,843 1.486 billion
- South Africa 56.72 million 349.4 billion
- St Kitts and Nevis 55,345 945.9 million
- St Lucia 178,844 1.712 billion
- St Vincent and the Grenadines 109,897 789.6 million
- Suriname 563,402 3.324 billion
- Switzerland 8.42 million 678.9 billion
- Trinidad and Tobago 1.369 million 22.1 billion
- Zimbabwe 16.53 million 17.85 billion
Remainers said the UK would never sign these deals by Brexit day…
The winner of this week’s competition will receive a free copy of this summer’s must have: The Brexit Card Game. Entries in the comments…
The EU’s trade relations with South-East Asian powerhouse Indonesia have come under renewed strain with Indonesia preparing to slap a 20-25% tariff on dairy products from the EU in response to the EU whacking 8-18% tariffs on Indonesian biodiesel. How dair-EU!
Indonesia’s population of 260 million is over half the size of the entire EU, it’s currently the 16th largest economy in the world and growing at a pacey 5% a year. Indonesia’s trade minister is so cheesed off he’s ordered dairy importers to find new suppliers outside the EU. Indonesia is the fifth largest non-EU importer of dairy products in the world so this is no trifling matter.
After Liz Truss’s big cheese push at DEFRA, it just so happens that the UK will in a matter of weeks be the third largest non-EU exporter of dairy products in the world, and is about to regain control of its own tariff schedules, putting it in pole position to cream off the the EU’s market share. Brits get cheap biodiesel and textiles, while Indonesians will get top-quality Cheddar, Stilton, Yarg, Brie, Wensleydale and clotted cream. Perfect!
As the leadership race draws to a close (less than a week to go now) MPs have started to follow in Amber Rudd’s footsteps and more openly pitch for Cabinet jobs. The most blatant of which being Mark Harper this morning…
Key to delivering Brexit will be getting Stormont up and running as well as ensuring a better relationship with the Republic of Ireland. For this, the next Prime Minister will need a serious, credible figure as their Northern Ireland Secretary. pic.twitter.com/nr7PQJxe43
— Mark Harper (@Mark_J_Harper) July 17, 2019
After his brief leadership pitch, the former Chief Whip is clearly looking to get back into the Cabinet, clearly aiming for the low hanging fruit role of Northern Ireland Secretary. Few want it and the incumbent is sure to be one of the first out the door…
Harper is also following in the video footsteps of Liz Truss who made a slightly more subtle pitch at the start of the month focusing on business. She’s now widely tipped to lead a souped up Business department. #LizForBiz
Why I’m backing @BorisJohnson to unleash British business and get us out of the EU by 31 October. #BackBoris 👇 pic.twitter.com/x5NZT7pHpU
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) July 2, 2019
We’ll start finding out if these pitches are successful in just a week’s time…
