Liam Fox’s campaign to be the next WTO Director-General received a boost this morning as he made it though to the next round of the selection process, beating the Mexican and Egyptian candidates who have been knocked out. The remaining shortlist is as follows:
Guido learns Fox won the support of the Commonwealth, though notiecably the EU en bloc voted for anyone but him. Fox is the last European left…
Liam Fox’s nomination to become the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation – and Global Britain – received a significant boost yesterday, just two days after his formal appointment to the competition by the PM. Speaking to a Chatham House event last night, the US Trade Secretary Robert Lighthizer told the audience Fox was “one of the favourites”, lavishing praise:
“I’m an admirer of his … I’ve had many a conversation with him. I’ve even had the occasional cocktail with him. He’s smart, he knows the area, he has a good philosophy.”
Last month Lighthizer told lawmakers the US is looking to back “someone who understands the nature of the problem of free economies dealing with China”, which may not be too difficult a manifesto for Fox to get on board with, given the UK’s shift away from warm relations over Hong Kong, and an impending u-turn on Huawei. Fox wasn’t one of the favourites before, however such praise from the world’s largest economy can’t hurt…
Prince of Darkness Peter Mandelson is back from the dead, perhaps awakened by the same Blairite resurrection that’s directing Sir Keir’s Labour leadership. Today he has launched a campaign to be selected as the UK’s nomination for the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation. That’s the same Lord Mandelson who during the EU referendum claimed Brexit would leave Britain with “no real trade negotiating capacity”…
Writing for the Times today, Mandelson explains that the global economy over the last 30 years has been one in which “corporate strategists have concentrated on finding new markets and minimising costs”. As explained by a pre-eminent corporate global lobbyist…
The former EU trade commissioner claims the state of global trade – and the WTO – is “not in good health and needs fixing”, arguing his main virtues would be:
Given he’s up against pro-Brexit, former trade secretary Liam Fox – whose team is currently directing journalists’ inquiries straight to the official No. 10 press office – the term ‘non-starter’ seems like an understatement…
One immediate change that Brexit has brought about is the UK regaining its World Trade Organisation seat after 47 years of being represented by the EU and its predecessor the EEC. Yesterday Julian Braithwaite, the UK’s ambassador to the WTO, took up his new seat in Geneva next to the United States’ WTO Ambassador Dennis Shea. From there, he made the first remarks representing the UK as an independent country…
OECD chief Jose Angel Gurría is so chillaxed about a no-deal Brexit. Telling Sky’s Ed Conway in Davos, “What’s the worst scenario? A no deal, WTO rules…the whole world is running by WTO rules these days!”
Miriam Gonzalez Durantez said “there is nothing in the WTO about regulation”. But she wrote a book on WTO regulation https://t.co/LsWa13ued2 pic.twitter.com/BfnxVK2lHw
— Henry Newman (@HenryNewman) October 13, 2017
“There is nothing in the WTO about regulation,” Miriam Durantez said on the Daily Politics earlier. Which is a slightly curious comment given she wrote a book on WTO regulation called “Regulatory Aspects of the WTO Telecoms Agreements”. To be fair, sounds forgettable.
